Scottish councillor AI media incident — Sep 2026

Meta’s Oversight Board has ordered the company to remove two AI-generated videos from Facebook and issued a call for more rigorous measures to combat the proliferation of deceptive deepfake content. The decision follows a case involving a Scottish councillor who was falsely portrayed in an AI-generated video making inflammatory comments regarding refugees.

What happened

The incident involved a video that depicted the councillor appearing to make harmful, fabricated statements about refugees. The Oversight Board determined the content was synthetically generated, noting a clear lack of synchronization between the audio and the councillor’s facial movements. The councillor described the unauthorized use of their replicated voice as a traumatic experience.

Meta had initially declined to remove the video after it was reported, arguing that the content had not been flagged by its “trusted partner” organizations and did not interfere with electoral processes. Furthermore, the video lacked any AI disclosure labels. The Oversight Board overruled this decision, concluding that the content violated Meta’s hateful conduct rules by attributing predatory behavior to refugees as a group. The board further stated that the video should have been prominently labeled as AI-generated.

In its ruling, the board characterized Meta’s current safeguards as “consistently and fundamentally inadequate” to handle the rapid growth of synthetic media. The board issued nine policy recommendations, including the expansion of “high risk” labels, the implementation of warning screens that require user interaction, and increased penalties for accounts that repeatedly disseminate deceptive AI content. The board emphasized that deepfakes are increasingly utilized to harass and silence women in public discourse, demanding that social media platforms adopt more robust policies to address this trend. Meta is required to respond to these recommendations within 60 days.