RadialB says he was able to start making this content because of the “huge jump” in the quality and availability of AI tools. It “hugely lowers the barrier for entry” for anyone who wants to make “fake stuff”, he says.
He says a lot of the accounts re-sharing his posts are likely doing it for views and clicks – and in an effort to monetise the content on other platforms like Facebook.
Users as far away as Israel and Brazil said they shared the videos because they “got engagement” or to “join in on the trend”. Several other accounts posting in Arabic, and that appear to be based in the Middle East, have also shared multiple videos about London being in decline – including the ones of Croydon.
I have also found several TikTok profiles that purport to be British news accounts, which only share either these kinds of AI-generated videos about London or other negative content about cities in the UK and US.
The deepfakes fit into an existing trend of videos presenting European and American cities as falling into urban decay because of crime and immigration. Sometimes they show real examples of phone-snatching, homelessness, graffiti or drug problems, but omit any wider context.
Increasingly, though, they use AI to distort reality.
South African YouTuber Kurt Caz has built an audience of more than four million subscribers by posting travel videos with titles such as “Attacked by thieves in Barcelona!” and “Threatened in the UK’s worst town!”
But after posting a recent video, called “Avoid this place in London”, he was accused of using AI to doctor the thumbnail to bolster his portrayal of the UK capital as one of “the most messed up cities” he has ever been to.
