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AI tools fabricate Epstein images ‘in seconds,’ study says

Politics, Society, Technology, Uncategorized

February 10, 2026 AI tools can easily fabricate convincing images of Jeffrey Epstein with world leaders, a study has shown, following a surge of manipulated photos falsely linking prominent politicians to the convicted sex offender. Social media users have amplified AI-generated images purporting to show the convicted sex offender socializing with politicians such as New […]

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‘AI president’: Trump deepfakes glorify himself, trash rivals

Politics, Society, Technology, Uncategorized

November 12, 2025 In a parallel reality, Donald Trump reigns as king, fighter pilot, and Superman, and his political opponents are cast as criminals and laughingstocks — an unprecedented weaponization of AI imagery by a sitting American president. Trump has ramped up his use of artificial intelligence-generated content on his Truth Social channel since starting

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Fact-check Malta: Is Malta’s Cabinet receiving a salary raise?

Fact Check, Politics, Uncategorized

November 7, 2025 A series of social media posts posted by opposition party PN in the immediate aftermath of the annual budget held on Monday October 27 sparked a debate over pay raises for Malta’s Cabinet ministers. The posts compared the weekly COLA increase (cost-of-living adjustment, a sum handed out to compensate for inflation) given

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YouTube users trip over fake AI tributes to Charlie Kirk

Politics, Society, Technology, Uncategorized

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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‘Fueling sexism’: AI ‘bikini interview’ videos flood internet

Society, Technology, Uncategorized

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

Politics, Society, Technology, Uncategorized

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

Politics, Technology, Ukraine, Uncategorized

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

Fact Check, Politics, Society, Technology, Uncategorized

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

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‘Form of violence’: Across globe, deepfake porn targets women politicians

Editors Pick, Politics, Society, Technology, Uncategorized

January 15, 2025 From the United States to Italy, Britain, and Pakistan, female politicians are increasingly becoming victims of AI-generated deepfake pornography or sexualized images, in a troubling trend that researchers say threatens women’s participation in public life. An online boom in non-consensual deepfakes is outpacing efforts to regulate the technology globally, experts say, with

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Fact-check Malta: The country has bad buildings, but this isn’t one of them

Economy, Politics, Uncategorized

October 22, 2024 Poor and tasteless construction is rampant in Malta. So it is no surprise that many Maltese believed that a particular image published on Facebook showed a local building. A reverse image search on Google quickly shows that the building is not in Malta. Search results show that it first went viral in

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Fact-check Malta: Are tourists in Malta spending more than they used to?

Economy, Society, Uncategorized

September 6, 2024 With the tourist season in full swing, the debate over the type of tourists arriving in Malta, and their impact on Malta’s economy, has once again hit the front pages. Tony Zahra, the president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, one of Malta’s main tourism lobby groups, was the first to

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Fact-check Malta: How scammers are trying to get into your WhatsApp account

Fact Check, Society, Uncategorized

August 30, 2024 Have you recently received an “urgent” WhatsApp message from your friend asking you to send them a code? That ‘friend’ is no friend at all but a scammer trying to worm their way into kicking you out of your WhatsApp account. Police have urged the public to take more care as reports of WhatsApp

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Fact-check Malta: No, Mater Dei is not removing crucifixes from its walls

Society, Uncategorized

July 31, 2024 As the court cases in connection to the fraudulent privatisation of three of Malta’s state hospitals continue, some locals believe another hospital-related line has been crossed. This time, though, the issue is the supposed removal of crucifixes from wards. On Sunday 28 July, several Facebook users shared posts claiming that Mater Dei

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Fact-check Malta: Who gets to be mayor in Malta’s hung councils?

Fact Check, Politics, Uncategorized

June 27, 2024 Several of Malta’s largest localities emerged from the local council elections held on 8 June with hung councils, after neither of Malta’s two main political parties obtained a majority of seats. In Birkirkara, one of Malta’s most populated towns, the Labour Party (PL) and Nationalist Party (PN) each won six seats, meaning

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Fact-check Malta: Was a butcher caught killing sick dogs and cats and selling them as sausage meat?

Fact Check, Health, Society, Uncategorized

June 27, 2024 Rumours that a butcher on the island of Gozo was killing sick dogs and cats and selling them to customers as sausages spread like wildfire on Friday 21 June, causing panic and disgust in equal measure. They claimed that several people had fallen sick and were admitted to hospital over the weekend

Fact-check Malta: Was a butcher caught killing sick dogs and cats and selling them as sausage meat? Read More »

Fact-check Malta: Opposition leader Bernard Grech’s workers’ day speech

Politics, Uncategorized

May 18, 2024 Like his counterpart Prime Minister Robert Abela, Opposition leader Bernard Grech also used Malta’s workers’ day celebration to launch the Nationalist Party’s electoral campaign during a rally held in the town of Mosta. Times of Malta sifted through some of the claims made by Grech during his speech. Claim: Prime Minister Robert Abela

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Fact-check Malta: Prime Minister Robert Abela’s workers’ day speech

EU, Fact Check, Politics, Uncategorized

May 18, 2024 Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Robert Abela launched his party’s European Parliament election campaign with a fiery speech at a May Day rally. Times of Malta dug through several claims made by Abela during his speech to separate fact from fiction. Claim: Roberta Metsola called Lawrence Gonzi “my prime minister”. Without

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This image of queues in Greece was created using artificial intelligence

Society, Technology, Uncategorized

September 21, 2023 Heavy rains in early September 2023 caused deadly flooding in Thessaly in central Greece, leaving residents in some towns without drinking water and triggering queues for bottled water. In the wake of this natural disaster, posts on social networks shared an image generated by artificial intelligence (AI) claiming or implying that it

This image of queues in Greece was created using artificial intelligence Read More »