Engagement farmers on TikTok are using AI to manipulate real arrest footage to show police officers kissing and groping arrestees being taken into custody.
The deepfakes, which were discovered by Copyleaks, are grotesque. The AI-manipulated videos are based on actual footage of arrests — which appear to have originally been filmed for reality TV shows like TLC’s “D.U.I.” — but have been altered to depict law enforcement officers kissing and sexually touching real women, as well as a few real men, who were pulled over. The arrestees are often shown wearing handcuffs and being held near, in, or against police cruisers as the fake sexual activity occurs.
These abusive deepfakes are then spliced in front of longer videos of the arrest, a tactic which suggests that the deepfakes were made to get scrolling users hooked so they watch the arrest videos through to the end.
“This is a disturbing example of how AI tools are being used to create deepfake versions of real content to drive attention and engagement on social media,” Copyleaks cofounder and CEO Alon Yamin said in a statement. “It’s important to remember that these videos feature real people — both police officers and citizens — who are being depicted doing things that never happened.”
