Youtube creators targeting Black celebrities with misinformation using A.I.

[FluffyEyes]

Fake news YouTube creators target Black celebrities with AI-generated misinformation​

Some channels pivoted from tech review videos to misinformation about Black celebrities, bringing in millions of views.

Jan. 30, 2024, 9:17 AM EST
By Kat Tenbarge


YouTube videos using a mix of artificial intelligence-generated and manipulated media to create fake content have flooded the platform with salacious disinformation about dozens of Black celebrities, including rapper and record executive Sean “Diddy” Combs, TV host Steve Harvey, actor Denzel Washington and Bishop T.D. Jakes.

Many of the video titles and voiceovers have pushed fake narratives that stem from recent rape and sex trafficking lawsuits against Combs, including a high-profile case settled between him and entertainer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Other videos have implicated figures like Jakes in the allegations against Combs without evidence and used manipulated media to depict the celebrities engaging in lewd acts and exaggerated displays of emotion in video thumbnails.

NBC News reviewed a dozen YouTube channels posting what appears to be AI-generated fake news content about Black celebrities. Many of the videos it reviewed are clickbait, meaning the YouTube video titles and thumbnails indicate narratives or allegations that aren’t in the videos themselves. Some of the videos have millions of views, and the median number of combined views for each channel was 21 million.

In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for YouTube said the platform reviewed and took a number of actions on several of the channels it flagged, “including terminating three channels for violating our Terms of Service, removing additional channels from our monetization program and removing a number of videos and thumbnails.”

“YouTube’s Community Guidelines set the rules of the road for what is and is not allowed on our platform, including content that contains targeted harassment or unwanted sexualization,” the statement said.

The content flourished before and after YouTube’s actions. Angelica Nwandu, the founder and CEO of The Shade Room — one of the largest Black culture news sources online, with over 28 million Instagram followers — said the issue of AI-generated and other fake news content about Black celebrities has become a problem for her team since last year.

“We’ve seen these pages that pop up on YouTube or TikTok, and they will have an AI-generated picture of Rihanna crying over A$AP [Rocky] going to jail, and it’s completely fake,” Nwandu said. “Our audience will DM and say ‘Why aren’t you posting this news?’ ‘Why aren’t you covering this story?’ Because they believe these pages.”
The videos about Black celebrities often tie back to real, shocking and scandalous events in the news. By remixing real news with false information and allegations, the videos are able to quickly gain traction by appearing to provide new information about topics that are already attracting attention.

The flood of manipulated and AI-generated fake content on YouTube coincides with its parent company Google’s forays into generative AI technology, as well as rising fears about disinformation efforts targeting 2024 elections around the globe. YouTube announced in November that it plans to enforce a new policy requiring labels for synthetic and manipulated media in videos. That system isn’t yet in place.
It can be difficult to distinguish between AI-generated media and media that is manipulated without the use of AI (sometimes referred to as “cheapfakes”). One out of the dozen channels NBC News reviewed responded to a request for comment. In an email, a person representing the channel, which focuses on celebrity news, said it uses “AI text-to-speech technology” for some videos but denied using AI tools for the scripts being read out loud or the thumbnails. AI-generated voice technology is thought to have been used in a fake President Joe Biden robocall that told New Hampshire Democrats not to vote in January’s primary.

Fake news YouTube creators target Black celebrities with AI-generated misinformation

Some channels pivoted from tech review videos to misinformation about Black celebrities, bringing in millions of views.

www.nbcnews.com

When the owner of the Shade Room is concerned about A.I. disinformation, we definitely have a problem.

 

[BaggerofTea]

And remember, black people are the number one target of this chicanery

 

[FluffyEyes]

And remember, black people are the number one target of this chicanery

They always using us as guinea pigs. Start with the bullshyt fake gossip, low stakes and then ease into more important shyt like social justice demonization, politics and straight up propaganda.

 

[BaggerofTea]

They always using us as guinea pigs. Start with the bullshyt fake gossip, low stakes and then ease into more important shyt like social justice demonization, politics and straight up propaganda.

We need to go low tech but too many people sre attached to their social media pages


These gossip blog social media accounts are literally cesspools of destruction.

On their own they are very bad, then when you fuse it with fake news gpt. It becomes just that much worse

 

[B86]

If you can’t tell what’s real and what’s fake on this internet by now, there’s no hope for you and it’s your own fault…

 

[BaggerofTea]

Black folks propensity to be gullible and believe everything at face value is going to cost us dearly if we don't start using common sense and going low tech

 

[BaggerofTea]

If you can’t tell what’s real and what’s fake on this internet by now, there’s no hope for you and it’s your own fault…

People believing nonsense on the internet affects everyone.

If you are you black of course

 

[B86]

People believing nonsense on the internet affects everyone.

If you are black of.course

It doesn’t affect me not one bit because I don’t think I can recall a time I’ve seen something fake and didn’t know it was fake. People have to be damn near brain dead to be on the internet 24/7 but still don’t know how to use it.

Don’t start the black shyt. Because I’ll start going in on how we are the main ones with the phones in our hands all day but somehow cant manage to wrap our heads around the internet to gain knowledge or make a couple dollars from this internet shyt…

 

[BaggerofTea]

It doesn’t affect me not one bit because I don’t think I can recall a time I’ve seen something fake and didn’t know it was fake. People have to be damn near brain dead to be on the internet 24/7 but still don’t know how to use it.

Don’t start the black shyt. Because I’ll start going in on how we are the main ones with the phones in our hands all day but somehow cant manage to wrap our heads around the internet to gain knowledge or make a couple dollars from this internet shyt…

Bro, you are too grown to think this infantile. No offense.


People believing bullshyt on the internet that can convince them to be apathetic towards certain things, take on more toxic mindsets etc.

Ultimately affecting your interaction with them in person.


What are you doing? Aren't you black? I am guessing the phone is your face all the time as well and you obviously aren't up to anything productive.

Two can play that game

 

[FluffyEyes]

Because I’ll start going in on how we are the main ones with the phones in our hands all day but somehow cant manage to wrap our heads around the internet…

No let's talk about it. We now have a generation of ppl who grew up with this version of the internet(YouTube, multiple social media apps) and they have no idea how to parse through information, do proper research, they believe almost anything and that's the younger folks. Let's not even get into the 50+ folks who fall into alt right wormholes and become radicalized.

 

[Da Jungles]

I see it’s never too early to shyt on black people. Any opportunity y’all get

 

[010101]

ruling the world with storytelling..........*

 

[MegaTronBomb!]

If you can’t tell what’s real and what’s fake on this internet by now, there’s no hope for you and it’s your own fault…

People who believe in and entertain conspiracy theories seek these types of videos out..... and no amount of facts,common sense,pushback or questioning will convince these people that they're spreading misinformation.

A shyt tier gossip site like TSR who are one of the the biggest facilitators of this....are somehow now trying to have integrity and fight back against this?

 

[Fillerguy]

Was at a funeral/reunion over the weekend. Mostly 57+ aged relatives in attendance there must've been like fifteen-eleven hundred tick tock vids with the monotone cac ai voice my people were sharing or trying to show me. Something about Jay and Piddy being lovers. Bey divorcing Jay because she found out about him and Steve Harvey. Steve being a known pass around in Hollywood.

Nobody wanted seemed to care about how ridiculous it was. They we cool laughing along because its entertaining....but some took it seriously

 

[B86]

Bro, you are too grown to think this infantile. No offense.


People believing bullshyt on the internet that can convince them to be apathetic towards certain things, take on more toxic mindsets etc.

Ultimately affecting your interaction with them in person.


What are you doing? Aren't you black? I am guessing the phone is your face all the time as well and you obviously aren't up to anything productive.

Two can play that game

What am I doing? Over the past 10 years, the first thing I TAUGHT MYSELF was how to flip websites. From there I got into affiliate marketing; learning funnels and conversion tactics that gave me enough knowledge to put a few family members on. From what I learned about any kind of marketing, I passed to my mom and wife and now one has a successful aroma therapy business and the other a custom clothing boutique.

I was already partnered with a law firm since I move to FL but network security is my passion…I taught myself how to properly protect a law firm and their insurance partners so guess who not only partners but also gets paid for monitoring security with E&D response and hunting software?

The point is, all nikkas know how to do is get on social media to do pointless shyt all day. There is no reason fake news of any sort should be able to get by anyone at this point. We’ve all been on the internet too long. There is unlimited knowledge to be had but we won’t take advantage of.