Coordinated Deepfake Campaign Reportedly Impersonating Rishi Sunak Promoted Fraudulent Quantum AI Investment Platform on Meta

Between December 8, 2023 and January 8, 2024, AI-generated deepfake technology was used to create over 100 fraudulent video advertisements impersonating UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Facebook. The 143 individual ads were funded from 23 different countries including the US, Turkey, Malaysia and the Philippines, with over £12,929 spent on promotion. The deepfakes included faked footage of BBC newsreader Sarah Campbell falsely reporting a scandal involving Sunak and fabricated clips of the Prime Minister endorsing a fraudulent investment application supposedly launched by Elon Musk. The ads directed users to spoofed BBC News pages promoting scam investments. Research by Fenimore Harper discovered that these ads may have reached as many as 400,000 people despite appearing to break several of Facebook's advertising policies. Meta stated that the vast majority of the ads were disabled before the report was published and that less than 0.5% of UK users saw any individual ad. The incident represents the first widespread paid promotion of deepfaked video content featuring a UK political figure and raises concerns about AI-enabled misinformation campaigns ahead of the UK general election.