Outline:
With farmers throughout Europe demonstrating against the Mercosur free trade deal with South America, a growing number of AI-created videos featuring farmers have surfaced on social media platforms.
Several video captions indicate that they were created using AI. Some include the Sora watermark, which is Open’s AI image and video creation tool.
Nevertheless, such disclaimers may be overlooked when shared by different accounts.
Some videos reveal obvious signs of AI manipulation when examined more closely. For instance, in a particular video, police shields show irregularities, with the letter “e” in the word “police” appearing in varying fonts and sizes.
Numerous other videos have directly copied the style of French farmers, who, in addition to opposing Mercosur, have expressed frustration over the culling procedures designed to prevent the spread of lumpy skin disease in cattle populations.
Videos related to this topic present heartfelt accounts, with one video depicting a farmer who is distressed over the killing of hundreds of cows in the Ariège region of France.
Even though the statement might appear believable — as there was indeed a culling process in December, which resulted in police involvement after farmers tried to stop it — there are evident indicators of AI creation. For example, in the background while the farmer is speaking, one cow’s backside changes into its head.
In another case, a farmer gives an emotional account: however, he is shedding tears composed of blood that do not flow down his face.
Clicks for cash
The reason behind creating such fake material is typically to attract clicks, which can lead to financial gain if the videos become popular.
The demonstrations by European farmers have also been utilised within Russian propaganda efforts.
For example, a manipulated Euronews video that mimicked the channel’s logo and visual style became popular in early 2024. It depicted French farmers spreading fertilizer outside the Ukrainian embassy following a supposed letter from the ambassador asking them to stop their demonstrations.
In fact, the video was not showing France’s embassy in Ukraine, but the office of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council in Dijon — where farmers genuinely spread fertilizer.
The alleged ambassador’s letter urging farmers to stop protesting was also falsified.
These initiatives formed part of a strategy by pro-Russian entities to undermine Ukraine, against the backdrop of European farmers’ real worries regarding the influx of non-European goods into the market.