WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A video shows King Charles being arrested as Prince William reveals conspiracy in Diana’s death.
OUR VERDICT
False. The video is an AI deepfake.
AAP FACTCHECK - The British royal family is being targeted by deepfakes generated with artificial intelligence on social media in what experts say is an attempt to generate advertising revenue.
Many of the posts use AI-generated video and voiceovers, including a Facebook page called Royal Daily, which shared a deepfake purporting to show King Charles being arrested by police alongside a video of William talking without any sound.
"Breaking News: After 40 years of secrecy, Prince William has uncovered the shocking truth about Diana: 'It wasn't an accident, the one who conspired to harm my mother is…'," the post reads.
The comments section points users to an external web page featuring an article and pop-up ads.
The article features a still image from the same video, and the same headline as the Facebook post.
However, contrary to what's implied in the posts, it says the Prince of Wales blames the paparazzi for the death of his mother.
The web page is labelled "BBCNews" but it does not have the real BBC News URL.
The video of Charles is clearly AI-generated. The police are not in British uniforms, while the King's face and some officers in the background appear distorted.
Another Facebook page posted AI-generated images of a weeping William being comforted by veteran pop icon Elton John in the presence of his wife and three children.
However, John is wearing different suits, sunglasses and earrings in each of the three images, while William wears different trousers and belts in the two images in which he appears.
Other signs that the images are AI-generated include the Prince of Wales and Princess Kate wearing watches on opposite wrists, their son Prince George appearing with and without a belt, and the distorted background text on the pink balloon in the top image.
AAP FactCheck has identified over a dozen similar pages across Facebook making fake claims about the royals and racking up millions of views.
Toby Walsh, an AI expert at the University of NSW, said the proliferation of AI tools has made it cheaper to generate deepfakes, which is driving an increase in fake content online.
"We are soon to be overwhelmed by a tsunami of fake information," Professor Walsh told AAP FactCheck.
"The quality of these AI tools is increasing exponentially. Therefore, even though they may be obvious fakes today, this won't be the case in the very near future."
Many Facebook comments pointed out that the posts contained fake or AI-generated content, but engagement alone appeared to be the aim of the accounts sharing the content.
Dan Halpin, the chief executive of Sydney-based cyber investigations firm Cybertrace, said accounts were likely attempting to generate engagement for ad revenue.
"They're starting a new account and need to meet the qualifying requirements of Facebook for advertising," Mr Halpin told AAP FactCheck.
"Even if there are no ads on the video now, the goal is often to grow quickly and monetise later. It's basically spam and many users don't check or care if it's true or not."
Facebook publishers must pass and comply with Meta's partner monetisation policies to be eligible to use monetisation tools.
The policies state that pages may be ineligible or lose their eligibility if they publish fake or misleading content or engage in baiting.
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