UK anti-immigration social media accounts traced to Sri Lanka and Vietnam

Dozens of interconnected Facebook and Instagram accounts are creating and sharing anti-immigration AI-generated posts about the UK, often with creators located hundreds or thousands of miles away in countries such as Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The "Great British People" Facebook page, which claims to be from Yorkshire, has garnered 1.3 million views for a video depicting an elderly white British man crying about his pension, alongside other content discussing "the overwhelming scale of mass immigration" and asking viewers if they miss "the Britain we used to know".

However, investigations by BBC Panorama and the Top Comment podcast, utilizing Facebook's transparency tools, interviews with content creators, and social media analysis, reveal that the accounts are run by individuals based in Sri Lanka, the US, Europe, Vietnam, the Maldives, and potentially linked to Iran and the UAE. One expert noted that people are generally worse at detecting AI fakes than they believe, and increased exposure to AI content can lead to distrust of authentic material.

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, who has commissioned research into AI-generated images that harm the city's reputation, stated that while some account operators are motivated by money, others are backed by hostile states like Russia and Iran. Although direct state involvement is difficult to verify, some accounts share pro-Russian and pro-Iranian government posts. The BBC's attempts to contact the account owners were unsuccessful.

Several accounts have repurposed their pages, shifting from topics like "Make America Great Again" and "Life in the USA" to using AI to promote anti-immigration narratives, sometimes experimenting with content sympathetic to migrants. Professor Sander van der Linden, a social psychologist at the University of Cambridge, described these operations as a "new evolution of influence operations," noting that overseas creators can easily pose as British nationals by purchasing UK-based social media accounts.

The AI-generated videos depict fake scenes, such as the House of Commons imposing Sharia law or women in hijabs discussing the UK becoming more Islamic. These videos create a contradictory image of the UK, associating decline with Muslim immigration while simultaneously portraying Islamic countries idyllically. Two individuals behind an account with over 20 million views, showing AI-generated videos of British cities in 2050 depicted as dirty and filled with people in Islamic clothing, claimed their purpose was to inform voters about potential future social and cultural trends. They denied financial motivation, stating they operate from a European country experiencing a "sense of insecurity" and that they idealize countries like Iran to "provoke thought and discussion."

Research by London's City Hall identified two main motives behind these posts: state actors, including those linked to Russia, China, and the US MAGA movement, and individuals or companies seeking profit from division. Sir Sadiq Khan expressed concern that these "AI-generated lies" could deter visitors, students, and investors, and lead "decent people" to believe a dystopian image of London. He urged social media companies to amend algorithms to avoid rewarding division and to clearly label AI content.

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, stated it takes "co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour seriously" and has teams working to identify and disrupt such activity, taking action on content violating their Community Standards. Some individuals running accounts that cross-promote or engage with the "fake" British patriot content admitted to posting for engagement, followers, and money through Instagram's monetization scheme. Others claimed their activity was not politically motivated but aimed at gaining attention.

However, some individuals running similar content and engaging with these accounts are based in the UK. One person from the West Midlands, posting about "the restoration of Britain's former greatness," coordinates with a group chat on Instagram that includes accounts based in India, Pakistan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

Professor van der Linden highlighted the growing "disinformation-for-hire industry" where paid actors and influencers use AI content and bots to manufacture support for agendas. Professor Yvonne McDermott Rees, a law professor at Queen's University Belfast, noted that research suggests the public has only about a 55% accuracy level in spotting fakes and often overestimates their ability. Comments on AI-generated videos indicate some people are being convinced, with one user stating, "It's probably AI but the fact is that he is right about everything."

Professor van der Linden also warned that many people do not seem to care if content is AI-generated, endorsing and sharing it if it resonates with their identity and worldview because it signals agreement with a larger agenda.