Deepfake Donald Trump arrest photos 

Occurred: March 2023

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Images of Donald Trump appearing to be tackled to the ground and arrested by New York police officers went viral online, fooling some people into thinking they were real. Trump was shortly to appear before a court over his alleged hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. 

Created by Eliot Higgins, founder of investigative website Belingcat, using AI image generator Midjourney, the images included shots of Trump's wife Melania screaming, his daughter Ivanka yelling, son Donald Trump Jr protesting, and the former US president in orange prison fatigues. 

Higgins was later banned by Midjourney for violating its terms of use. The word 'arrested' was also banned on the platform. The incident led commentators to highlight the necessity of dedicated AI regulation.

Operator: Eliot Higgins
Developer: Midjourney
Country: USA
Sector: Politics
Purpose: Entertain
Technology: Deepfake - video; Generative adversarial network (GAN); Neural network; Deep learning; Machine learning  
Issue: Mis/disinformation; Ethics
Transparency: Governance; Black box

Page info
Type: Incident
Published: April 2023