Facebook bans hundreds of pro-Trump accounts with AI-generated fake profile pictures

Facebook has removed hundreds of fake accounts with Artificial Intelligence-generated profile pictures, accusing Epoch Media Group of running the campaign to spread messages opposing China’s Communist Party and supporting President Donald Trump.

Facebook said on Friday that it had removed 610 accounts, 89 Facebook Pages, 156 Groups and 72 Instagram accounts that originated in Vietnam and the U.S.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, said that the fake accounts’ activity primarily focused on The BL, a US-based media company, adding that an ‘investigation linked this activity to Epoch Media Group, a US-based media organization, and individuals in Vietnam working on its behalf.’

In a statement, Epoch Times publisher Stephen Gregory vehemently denied the company has any connection to the fake accounts or BL.com, saying the latter site was founded by a former Epoch employee but operates completely independently.

Example of fake headshots generated by Artificial Intelligence

Examples of fake headshots generated by Artificial Intelligence are seen above. Facebook said that many of the accounts it recently deleted used images generated with similar technology

An example of the content posted to one of the banned Pages is seen above. Facebook said it had removed 610 accounts, 89 Facebook Pages, 156 Groups and 72 Instagram accounts

An example of the content posted to one of the banned Pages is seen above. Facebook said it had removed 610 accounts, 89 Facebook Pages, 156 Groups and 72 Instagram accounts

‘Epoch Media Group calls upon Facebook to withdraw its claim that Epoch Media Group has been involved in coordinated action with BL and to withdraw its claim that BL has been working on behalf of Epoch Media Group,’ Gregory wrote.

The Epoch Times is a right-leaning publication that focuses on China, and takes a hard line in opposition to the Communist Party. 

The newspaper was founded by Chinese-American members of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement persecuted in China, but the company denies any formal or financial ties to the movement.

Facebook’s Gleicher said that the campaign of fake accounts ‘used profile photos generated by artificial intelligence and masqueraded as Americans to join Groups and post the BL content.’

AI-generated faces are a relatively new phenomenon, and related to the use of AI in creating deepfake videos, a challenge that social media companies are attempting to combat. 

‘The people behind this activity made widespread use of fake accounts — many of which had been automatically removed by our systems — to manage Pages and Groups, automate posting at very high frequencies and direct traffic to off-platform sites,’ wrote Gleicher.

Facebook blamed a publication called the BL for the campaign. Above is an example of content posted to one of the banned pages, promoting BL's Spanish-language site

Facebook blamed a publication called the BL for the campaign. Above is an example of content posted to one of the banned pages, promoting BL’s Spanish-language site

Above is another sample of the content posted by some of the recently banned Pages

Above is another sample of the content posted by some of the recently banned Pages

Gleicher said the fake accounts and pages posted memes and other content about US political news and issues including impeachment, conservative ideology, political candidates, elections, trade, family values and freedom of religion. 

About 55 million accounts followed one or more of the banned Facebook Pages, Gleicher said. He said 381,500 accounts joined at least one of the removed Groups and around 92,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts. 

He said the banned network had spent less than $9.5 million on Facebook ads before being removed. 

In August, Facebook banned Epoch Times from running any ads after NBC News ran a series of reports accusing the newspaper of running ‘pro-Trump’ political ads.

Gregory, the publisher of the Epoch Times, said at the time that the company’s advertising promoting its political coverage is no different than Facebook ads run by the likes of CNN and the New York Times.

‘NBC’s representation of our print-subscription advertisements is blatantly incorrect. None of our advertising was done to “obfuscate” the connection to The Epoch Times; all the advertising was clearly for Epoch Times print subscriptions,’ Gregory said. 

‘Despite a vast “dark money” political conspiracy alleged in NBC News reporting, the reality is much simpler,’ he continued.

‘The Epoch Times has been running a very popular digital marketing campaign for our print-newspaper subscriptions. In the video advertisements, we discuss The Epoch Times’ editorial and feature content and encourage people to subscribe to our print newspaper,’ Gregory said.

In November, Rep. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg protesting the advertising ban against Epoch Times.

“Facebook has realized a Chinese Communist Party goal outside China’s homeland,’ Banks wrote.

“By prohibiting The Epoch Times from advertising you have indirectly aided the Chinese Communist Party in their worldwide soft power competition with the United States,” he continued. 

On Friday, Gregory reiterated his protest of the advertising ban, urging Facebook to ‘lift its unjustified ban on Epoch Media Group advertising.’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk