Activist couple Masri and Barnard were accused of being "known terrorist sympathisers" by an unknown entity disguised as a "student". 

London-based academic Mazen Masri and his wife Ryvka Bernard were attacked in an article for US Jewish nespaper The Algemeiner apparently written by University of Birmingham student "Oliver Taylor." 

Someone of the same name had bylines in the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel, and "he" was described in online profiles as a coffee lover and politics junkie.

However, experts identified Taylor's photograph had been generated using AI and journalists found that he did not exist. 

Others suspect Taylor was concocted by controversial Israeli company NSO Group, against which Masri had launched an Israeli lawsuit on behalf of alleged Mexican victims of the company's phone hacking technology.

The incident was seen to highlight the potential for deepfake technology to be weaponised against individuals, especially activists and public figures.