Emma Caulfield AI media incident — Sep 2026
Russian disinformation actors utilized deepfake videos of celebrities including Emma Caulfield and Alyson Hannigan to spread political propaganda
- Incident date
- Sep 2026
- Target
- Emma Caulfield, Alyson Hannigan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Roberts, Ed Begley Jr., Eric Roberts
In mid-September 2026, a Russian disinformation campaign utilized deepfake technology to produce a series of videos depicting Hollywood celebrities attacking the Democratic Party. The campaign, attributed to the group Matryoshka, leveraged the likenesses of several actors to push political narratives ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
What happened
The operation involved creating fabricated videos that featured voice-cloned audio overlaid on existing footage of celebrities. The attackers repurposed content from various sources, including footage from a 2023 Gucci campaign and personalized videos originally purchased through the platform Cameo. Actors targeted in the campaign included Emma Caulfield, Alyson Hannigan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Roberts, Ed Begley Jr., and Eric Roberts.
To lend the content an air of legitimacy, the videos were branded with CNN’s logo, a move the network later denounced as unauthorized. The clips featured the actors making extreme, false claims against Democrats, such as accusations regarding child safety or political alignment. The campaign utilized hashtags like #AllDemocratsAreCriminals and employed inorganic bot activity to amplify the reach of the posts across social media platforms.
Several of the targeted celebrities, including Caulfield, Begley Jr., and Eric Roberts, publicly disavowed the videos, expressing feelings of violation and clarifying that the statements did not represent their beliefs. Disinformation researchers noted that the use of stolen Cameo footage is a recurring tactic for the Matryoshka operation, which has previously targeted elections in Europe and Armenia. While platforms like X, TikTok, and Bluesky removed some of the content, the campaign continued to evolve, eventually producing fabricated reports attempting to discredit journalists who were debunking the initial deepfakes. Experts view this incident as a significant escalation in foreign interference efforts targeting the upcoming U.S. electoral process.