Fact-check Malta: Deepfake scam articles impersonate ministers after Budget Day
Scammers use familiar methods but are becoming increasingly sophisticated
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Technology
Fact-check Malta: AI-generated videos of unusual incidents on Malta’s streets
November 4, 2025 A series of AI generated videos posted in recent days showing unusual sightings in Malta’s streets have duped many people into believing they are real. The videos range from plausible events, such as photorealistic depictions of near-traffic accidents, to seemingly implausible, such as the sight of exotic animals freely roaming Malta’s streets.
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YouTube users trip over fake AI tributes to Charlie Kirk
October 21, 2025 “Thank you, Adele, it’s such a beautiful song,” reads a glowing comment beneath an emotional YouTube tribute to slain US activist Charlie Kirk. But the music is AI-generated — and bears little resemblance to the British icon’s voice. Rapidly evolving artificial intelligence tools can now create songs from simple text prompts, mimicking
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Fact-check Malta: Scammers use fatal car crash to solicit fake donations
October 21, 2025 Claim: The family of a tragic car crash are requesting donations through a Facebook page. Verdict: The Facebook page was set up by scammers, hoping to defraud people of their funds. Online scammers are soliciting donations in the name of Sandra and Kevin Bonnici, one of the two couples who died tragically in
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‘Fueling sexism’: AI ‘bikini interview’ videos flood internet
September 12, 2025 The videos are strikingly lifelike, featuring bikini-clad women conducting street interviews and eliciting lewd comments — but they are entirely fake, generated by AI tools increasingly used to flood social media with sexist content. Such AI slop — mass-produced content created by cheap artificial intelligence tools that turn simple text prompts into
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US anti-disinformation guardrails fall in Trump’s first 100 days
May 5, 2025 From slashed federal funding for disinformation research to the closure of a key agency combating foreign influence operations, the United States has dismantled vital guardrails against falsehoods within President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. The moves could have national security implications, experts warn, granting US adversaries such as Russia and
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Hijacking news: Fake media sites sow Ukraine disinformation
April 23, 2025 A fake news website falsely claimed that Ukraine’s president is paying Western reporters to tarnish US President Donald Trump — part of a series of deceptive reports spread by Russian-linked portals mimicking media outlets. The disinformation tactic, amid heightened international efforts to halt the three-year war with Russia, seeks to undermine both
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Fact check Malta: Labour Party supporters use AI to turn civil society protest into a partisan battle
April 14, 2025 Supporters of Malta’s Labour Party are sharing photorealistic AI-generated images in partisan Facebook groups that attempt to portray opposition leader Bernard Grech at a civil society protest in the capital city of Valletta. A protest was held by a number of local NGOs on 2nd April 2025 outside the parliament building in
Russian disinformation ‘infects’ AI chatbots, researchers warn
March 13, 2025 A sprawling Russian disinformation network is manipulating Western AI chatbots to spew pro-Kremlin propaganda, researchers say, at a time when the United States is reported to have paused its cyber operations against Moscow. The Pravda network, a well-resourced Moscow-based operation to spread pro-Russian narratives globally, is said to be distorting the output
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Fact-check Malta: Fishing for attention – AI-generated videos making waves
March 10, 2025 AI-generated videos are filling social media feeds, and they are looking increasingly real, even if logic suggests otherwise. Take this video, for example, which is currently doing the rounds on Instagram. It appears to show a team of fishermen out at sea hauling a mammoth oyster onto their boat. They proceed to
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