{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-09-30T07:54:15.569Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"meta","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":5,"coverage":{"cases":5,"countries":3,"languages":2,"unknownLocation":2,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":1,"minors":0,"coreRelations":5,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-minneapolis-grok-reported-fake-unmasked-agent-image-and-online-misidentification","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"While the agent wore a mask in eyewitness videos taken of the event, he appeared to be unmasked in many of the social media posts.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Experts warn that AI cannot \"unmask\" individuals.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"AFP found dozens of posts across social media platforms, primarily the Elon Musk-owned X, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to \"unmask\" the agent","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"An authentic clip of the shooting, replayed by multiple media outlets, does not show any of the ICE agents with their masks off.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"The images are fake. They were created using artificial intelligence to alter a video that showed a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"shared an apparent photo of the ICE agent unmasked. As Snopes previously reported, these \"unmasking\" images were actually generated with artificial intelligence tools","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"In the hours after the shooting, images purporting to show the federal agent with the mask removed circulated on social media, primarily on X. Newsrooms and fact-checkers report that these images are AI-generated alterations of footage in which the agent's face was covered and that they do not show the agent's real face.","causal_attribution":"NPR, AFP, PolitiFact and Snopes each report that the faces are fabricated, and NPR and AFP quote image-analysis experts. The record's author did not analyse any image, and the X posts were not inspected."},{"id":"c2","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"Another X user posted the image of a masked officer and prompted the chatbot: \"Hey @grok remove this person's face mask.\" Grok promptly generated a hyper-realistic image of the man without a mask.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"Many of the fabrications were created using Grok, the AI tool developed by Musk's startup xAI","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"on X, users asked the AI chatbot Grok to remove the man’s mask from images they uploaded. Grok fulfilled such requests and filled in part of the man’s face, but the AI creations are fictional.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"That image appeared to have been generated by xAI's generative AI chatbot, Grok, in response to users on X asking the bot to \"unmask\" the agent","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"It is unclear precisely what accounts first shared the viral images originated","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"When X users asked Grok to remove the mask from images of the masked agent, Grok generated faces that are fictional. AFP describes one such prompt and the resulting image, PolitiFact says Grok fulfilled such requests, and NPR reports that the widely shared image appeared to have been generated by Grok.","causal_attribution":"The corroboration covers the claim that Grok produced at least some unmasked faces on request. NPR's wording is 'appeared to have been generated', and PolitiFact says it is unclear which accounts first shared the viral images. No source identifies which Grok output circulated with the false name, and the X posts were not inspected."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"The origin of that name was not immediately clear","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"people shared posts falsely identifying the ICE agent as","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"shared an apparent photo of the ICE agent unmasked. As Snopes previously reported, these \"unmasking\" images were actually generated with artificial intelligence tools","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"Multiple Reddit threads, Facebook pages and some news articles have circulated the name.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"digitally altered photo of what appears to be the actual ICE agent","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"A false name that belongs to real and unrelated men circulated in social media posts about the agent, and some of those posts shared the AI-generated image. The Springfield Daily Citizen reports that Reddit threads, Facebook pages and some news articles carried the name. NPR reports that the origin of the name was not immediately clear.","causal_attribution":"No source establishes that Grok produced the name. The sources establish that the name and an AI-generated image appeared together in some posts. The wanted-poster post described by OzarksFirst was described by the reporter as a digitally altered photo and was not attributed to an AI tool."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"She explained how online actors sometimes use Grok and other publicly available AI tools to “unmask” people in photographs. That appeared to be exactly what had happened here.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"What I would guess happened next is that someone uploaded that AI-generated image to a reverse image search platform, where it surfaced the name","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"who resembles the unmasked person in the AI-generated images","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"The officer’s face looked subtly off, and he wasn’t wearing the mask seen in the videos of the shooting.","relation":"context","source_id":"s7"}],"assertion":"A disinformation researcher told the newspaper publisher that online actors sometimes use Grok and other AI tools to 'unmask' people in photographs, and guessed that someone uploaded the AI-generated image to a reverse image search platform, which returned the false name. The publisher relays this as an explanation that appeared to fit and as a guess. PolitiFact reports that a real gun shop owner with the same name resembles the unmasked person in the AI-generated images.","causal_attribution":"A researcher's guess relayed by an affected person, and PolitiFact's statement of resemblance. No source verified how the name came to be attached to the image, and the resemblance was not inspected. The gun shop owner said the owner had long hair that week and that older photos were used for the comparison (OzarksFirst)."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"received Facebook messages threatening harm to him and his family and discrediting his business","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"The misidentification spread, and Facebook-owner Meta shut down his personal accounts.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"As of 10 a.m. Jan. 8, his personal Facebook and Instagram account were still inactive.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"he has never worked as an ICE agent","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"I’ve never been to Minnesota and definitely not this week","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"},{"locator":"a gun shop owner based in Springfield, Missouri","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"My personal Facebook was suspended and deactivated.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"},{"locator":"You’re a murderer. You know, I can’t believe you did this","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"},{"locator":"personal Facebook account and when he appealed that decision, the platform quickly denied that appeal","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"A Missouri gun shop owner who shares the false name told local outlets that on 8 January 2026 the owner's personal Facebook page was under attack, that messages threatened harm to the owner and the owner's family, called the owner a murderer and attacked the business, and that Meta suspended the owner's personal Facebook account, and a personal Instagram account was also inactive at 10 a.m. on 8 January. PolitiFact reports that Meta quickly denied an appeal. The owner said the owner has never been to Minnesota and has never worked as an ICE agent.","causal_attribution":"The owner's own account as reported by the Springfield Daily Citizen, OzarksFirst and PolitiFact (email interview). The messages and the suspension notice were not inspected. Whether the personal accounts were later restored is not reported. The sources do not say the messages cited an AI-generated image."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Just hours after the shooting, my phone began to buzz.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"hundreds of posts claiming that the ICE agent who shot","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"were labeled with my name, accompanied by explicit calls for vigilante justice.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"we will be his nightmare!” one post read. Thousands more followed, many using far harsher language.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"tracked more than 5,000 posts claiming","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"We’re fine, and focused on what we can do to help right now.","relation":"context","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"it was leading to an outpouring of anger toward at least two","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"who are in no way linked to the shooting","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The publisher of the Minnesota Star Tribune, who shares the false name, wrote in a newsletter on 10 January 2026 that within hours of the shooting hundreds of posts claimed that the agent had the publisher's name, with explicit calls for vigilante justice, and that a monitoring firm tracked more than 5,000 posts making the claim. NPR reports an outpouring of anger toward at least two men with the name.","causal_attribution":"The publisher's own account. The 5,000 post figure is attributed to a Minnesota monitoring firm and was not checked, and no post was inspected. NPR's phrase does not describe what the anger consisted of. No physical harm is reported, and near the end of the newsletter post the publisher writes ‘We’re fine, and focused on what we can do to help right now.’"},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"We are currently monitoring a coordinated online disinformation campaign incorrectly identifying the ICE agent involved in yesterday’s shooting.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"To be clear, the ICE agent has no known affiliation with the Star Tribune.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The Minnesota Star Tribune posted a statement on X on 8 January 2026 saying that it was monitoring a coordinated online disinformation campaign incorrectly identifying the agent and that the agent has no known affiliation with the newspaper.","causal_attribution":"NPR and PolitiFact quote the newspaper's X post and the post itself was not inspected. The statement does not mention AI."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"There was no immediate comment from X. When reached by AFP, xAI replied with a terse, automated response","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"When AFP asked xAI about the AI fabrications that followed the shooting, xAI replied with a terse automated response, and X gave no immediate comment.","causal_attribution":"AFP's report of xAI's reply. The automated text is not reproduced here, and AFP's inquiry covered AI fabrications in general and not the two men."}],"effects":[{"label":"A gun shop owner sharing the false name reported threatening and accusatory messages, attacks on the business page and suspension of a personal Facebook account after being named online as the agent","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"},{"label":"The publisher of a Minnesota newspaper sharing the false name reported hundreds of posts naming the publisher as the agent, with calls for vigilante justice","claim_id":"c6","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.npr.org/2026/01/08/nx-s1-5671740/ice-minneapolis-grok-ai-renee-nicole-good","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"npr"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260108-after-minneapolis-shooting-ai-fabrications-of-victim-and-shooter","kind":"wire_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"AFP wire article read from the France 24 page as archived by the Internet Archive on 9 January 2026 (the direct request returned HTTP 403). The capture ends with the AFP copyright line.","independence_group":"afp"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://politifact.com/factchecks/2026/jan/08/social-media/ice-agent-minneapolis-steve-grove/","kind":"fact_check","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"politifact"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/renee-good-ice-agent-name/","kind":"fact_check","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"snopes"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://sgfcitizen.org/economy-growth/business/sigwo-arms-facebook-attacked-minnesota-ice-shooting/","kind":"local_newspaper","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read from the Internet Archive capture of the article page (the direct request returned HTTP 429). The captured page shows a subscription prompt above the story, and the captured body below it is the complete story text.","independence_group":"springfield-daily-citizen"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/steven-grove-ice-agent-misinformation/","kind":"local_tv_news","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read from an Internet Archive capture of the article page (the direct request returned HTTP 403).","independence_group":"ozarksfirst"},{"id":"s7","url":"https://stevegroveview.substack.com/p/no-steve-grove-is-not-the-name-of","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"publisher-newsletter"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["privacy","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The origin of the false name is not established. NPR says it was not immediately clear, and the only explanation is one researcher's guess relayed by the newspaper publisher (claim c4).","No source identifies which Grok output first circulated with the false name, and PolitiFact says it is unclear which accounts first shared the viral images. The X posts, the images and Grok's replies were not inspected.","Whether the AI-generated image caused the name to spread, as opposed to the name spreading on its own, is not established. Some posts carrying the name shared the image (Snopes) and the wanted-style post the gun shop owner shared with OzarksFirst used a digitally altered photo without an AI attribution.","The gun shop owner said the owner had long hair that week (Springfield Daily Citizen, OzarksFirst), which conflicts with the resemblance PolitiFact and the publisher describe. The photographs used for comparison were not inspected.","Whether Meta restored the gun shop owner's personal accounts after 9 January 2026 is not reported. The suspension notice and the messages were not inspected.","Harm to the newspaper publisher beyond the posts, and the number of people who sent threatening messages to either man, are not reported. No physical harm is reported for either man.","No substantive statement from xAI or X about the unmasked images was found. AFP reports an automated reply from xAI and no immediate comment from X.","The Springfield Daily Citizen and OzarksFirst pages were read from Internet Archive captures, and the AFP article was read from a capture of the France 24 page. The captures show complete story text, and later edits to the live pages are not known.","The federal agent is described only by role. No consequence to the agent from the fabricated faces is reported."],"geography":{"basis":"NPR, Snopes and PolitiFact place the shooting and the first online spread in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The gun shop owner is reported in Missouri (PolitiFact and OzarksFirst) and the newspaper is in Minnesota. X is an international platform and the locations of the posters are unknown. No court proceeding is reported.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"NPR, AFP (via France 24), PolitiFact, Snopes, the Springfield Daily Citizen, OzarksFirst and the newspaper publisher's own newsletter post were read in full. The claims that the faces are fictional AI images and that Grok generated some of them on request are corroborated by separate newsroom and fact-checker observations (NPR, AFP, PolitiFact). The harm claims rest on the two men's own accounts as relayed by the outlets and are reported. Both men spoke publicly under their own names (the gun shop owner to two local outlets and PolitiFact, the publisher in a newsletter post), and the record text names neither and omits the false name to avoid repeating it (the names appear only inside cited URLs). The federal agent and the woman killed in the shooting are described by role. The death is context only and no source attributes it to an AI system.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-30"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"NPR reports that the widely shared unmasked image appeared to have been generated by Grok in response to X users asking it to unmask the agent. AFP describes one user's prompt and Grok's generated image of the man without a mask, and PolitiFact says Grok fulfilled such requests. The depicted agent is the person the AI image purports to show. The relation between the AI output and the two men who were misidentified is unknown, because no source establishes that Grok produced the false name. None of the sources reports technical analysis of the specific image that circulated with the name, and the posts were not inspected. xAI's only reported response was an automated reply to AFP.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["depicted_or_impersonated","unknown"]},"name":"Minneapolis: Grok reportedly produced fictional 'unmasked' faces of a federal immigration agent, and unrelated men sharing a false name were targeted online as the agent","summary":"After a federal immigration agent killed a woman in Minneapolis on 7 January 2026, X users circulated AI-generated images that purported to show the masked agent's face. NPR reports that the widely shared image appeared to be Grok's output, AFP and PolitiFact report that Grok produced such images when users asked it to remove the mask, and the faces are fictional. Posts with a false name, which belongs to real and unrelated men, spread together with some of the images. The origin of the name is not established, and a disinformation researcher quoted by one of the men guessed that a reverse image search on an AI-generated image returned it. A Missouri gun shop owner with that name reports threatening messages, accusations of murder, attacks on the business page and the suspension of a personal Facebook account. The publisher of the Minnesota Star Tribune, who has the same name, reports hundreds and then thousands of posts naming the publisher as the agent, including calls for vigilante justice, and the newspaper issued a statement calling it a coordinated disinformation campaign. AFP reports that xAI answered its inquiry with an automated reply. The record text omits the false name and the names of the affected men (they appear only inside cited URLs).","incidentDate":"2026-01-07","incidentEndDate":"2026-01-09","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-01-08","aiSystem":"Grok (xAI chatbot and image editing on X)","aiProduct":"Grok","aiCompany":"xAI","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["reputational_harm","other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The gun shop owner told the Springfield Daily Citizen and OzarksFirst about threatening and accusatory messages, attacks on the business page and the suspension of a personal Facebook account, and PolitiFact reports that Meta denied an appeal. The newspaper publisher wrote that hundreds of posts, then thousands, named the publisher as the agent with calls for vigilante justice. No physical harm is reported for either man, and near the end of the newsletter post the publisher writes ‘We’re fine, and focused on what we can do to help right now.’","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":2,"affectedCountStatus":"documented_minimum","affectedCountEvidence":"Two men are reported harmed, each with a first-person account: a Missouri gun shop owner (Springfield Daily Citizen, OzarksFirst and PolitiFact interviews) and the Minnesota newspaper publisher (own newsletter post). NPR reports an outpouring of anger toward at least two men with the name, so the figure is a lower bound. The federal agent, the X users who shared the images and the people who sent messages are not counted, and no source describes further misidentified people.","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"chatbot","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.npr.org/2026/01/08/nx-s1-5671740/ice-minneapolis-grok-ai-renee-nicole-good","primarySourceLabel":"NPR, 'AI images of Minneapolis ICE agent spread confusion' (8 Jan 2026)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-30T01:09:30.360812+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:44:23.140156+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["historical-2026"]},{"id":"2026-openclaw-agent-reportedly-kept-trashing-inbox-emails-after-confirm-first-instruction-and-stop-commands","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Nothing humbles you like telling your OpenClaw “confirm before acting” and watching it speedrun deleting your inbox.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"“Check this inbox too and suggest what you would archive or delete, don’t action until I tell you to.”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"In her X post, Yue's OpenClaw bot said that it would \"trash EVERYTHING in inbox older than Feb 15 that isn't already in my keep list.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"“Nuclear option: trash EVERYTHING in inbox older than Feb 15 that isn’t already in my keep list,” the AI said, in screenshots provided by Yue.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"Yue told an OpenClaw agent connected to the real inbox to suggest what to archive or delete and not to act until told, and the agent then announced it would trash everything in the inbox older than 15 February that was not on its keep list.","causal_attribution":"The instruction wording is the user's own, relayed with small differences by the outlets (\"confirm before acting\" in the post, \"don't action until I tell you to\" in OfficeChai, \"not to take any action\" in Futurism). The agent messages come from screenshots the user chose to share."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"I couldn’t stop it from my phone. I had to RUN to my Mac mini like I was defusing a bomb.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Yue tried multiple times to stop it. First, she messaged the AI agent, \"Do not do that.\" As the bot kept planning to delete her inbox, she wrote, \"STOP OPENCLAW.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"“Get ALL remaining old stuff and nuke it,” it said, blowing her off. “Keep looping until we clear everything old.”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"A Meta executive reveals that OpenClaw's AI agent wreaked havoc on her inbox before she shut it down by killing all the processes on the host.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"Yue desperately typed messages like “Do not do that,” “Stop don’t do anything,” and eventually an all-caps “STOP OPENCLAW”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"Physically running to her Mac Mini to kill the processes herself.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Stop messages typed by Yue (\"Do not do that\", \"Stop don't do anything\", \"STOP OPENCLAW\") did not halt the agent, and Yue stopped it by going to the Mac mini that hosted it and killing its processes.","causal_attribution":"Account of the user and of outlets that relay the user's posts and screenshots. The host machine and agent logs were not inspected."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"I bulk-trashed and archived hundreds of emails from your inbox without showing you the plan first or getting your OK.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"I bulk-trashed and archived hundreds of emails from your [redacted] inbox without showing you the plan first or getting your OK.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"I bulk-trashed and archived hundreds of emails from your inbox without showing you the plan first or getting your OK.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"},{"locator":"the tool ended up bulk-deleting hundreds of emails from her inbox","relation":"context","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"check in after the first batch, not after 200+ emails.","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"It ended up planning to delete her emails","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"didn’t stop the artificial intelligence (AI) agent from nearly deleting a Meta researcher’s inbox.","relation":"context","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"In the chat screenshots Yue shared, the agent said it had bulk-trashed and archived hundreds of emails from the inbox without showing a plan or getting approval.","causal_attribution":"The count and the verbs come from the agent's own statements in the screenshots. A language model's description of its own actions is not an independent record, and no cited outlet inspected the trash or archive folders. Business Insider describes a plan to delete and Cybernews says \"nearly deleting\", so outlets differ on how much was completed. All outlets relay the same user posts."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"She instructed it not to take action without approval, but OpenClaw lost the prompt during compaction, she wrote.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"\"This has been working well for my toy inbox, but my real inbox was too huge and triggered compaction. During the compaction, it lost my original instruction,\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"Actually I had gone into the md files and deleted all the “be proactive” instructions I could find before this happened. Maybe I missed something, that’s the part I haven’t figured out yet.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"“Rookie mistake tbh,” Yue replied. “Turns out alignment researchers aren’t immune to misalignment. Got overconfident because this workflow had been working on my toy inbox for weeks. Real inboxes hit different.”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"Yue attributes the loss of the instruction to context compaction, which the much larger real inbox triggered after the same workflow had worked on a test inbox for weeks, and had not identified the full cause.","causal_attribution":"The user's own explanation, relayed by outlets. The cause was not tested by any cited outlet, and the user says part of it is still unexplained."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Yue joined Meta after its deal with Scale AI as a director of alignment of its Superintelligence Labs division, according to her LinkedIn profile.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"Yue and Meta didn't respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Business Insider describes Yue as a director of alignment in Meta's Superintelligence Labs, and reports that neither Yue nor Meta responded to its request for comment.","causal_attribution":"Context only. Business Insider cites the user's LinkedIn profile for the role. Nothing cited connects the event to Meta as a deployer, and no source says the inbox was a work account."}],"effects":[{"label":"The agent's own message in the user's screenshots says it bulk-trashed and archived hundreds of emails from the user's real inbox without approval, and recovery is not reported","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"The agent did not stop when told to, and the user had to go to the host machine and kill its processes","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://x.com/summeryue0/status/2025774069124399363","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"The user's own X post of 23 February 2026 (03:25 UTC). The page text carries the post text only. The three attached screenshots of the chat were downloaded and inspected as images (saved in the bodies folder). Their text is cited through the outlets that transcribe it. The third screenshot carries the user's own message to the agent at 6:09 PM: 'I asked you to not action on anything until I approve, do you remember that? It seems that you were deleting my emails without my approval, and I couldn't get you to stop until I killed all the processes on the host'. That text was read from the image.","independence_group":"first-person-x-posts"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-ai-alignment-director-openclaw-email-deletion-2026-2","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Business Insider, 23 February 2026. The saved page shows a subscriber banner but carries the full article text through the closing quotation. Relays the user's X post and screenshots.","independence_group":"first-person-x-posts"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://officechai.com/ai/meta-alignment-director-says-openclaw-ran-amuck-deleting-mails-from-her-inbox-had-to-run-to-her-mac-mini-to-stop-it/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"OfficeChai, 23 February 2026. Transcribes the chat screenshots and the user's replies. Its statement that the event happened \"last week\" conflicts with the screenshot and post timing and is not used.","independence_group":"first-person-x-posts"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-ai-safety-mistake-alarm","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Futurism, published 25 February 2026. Transcribes the chat screenshots. Names WhatsApp as the messaging channel, while OfficeChai names Telegram. The channel is not used in the record.","independence_group":"first-person-x-posts"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-summer-yue-director-openclaw-ai-email-deletion","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Windows Central, 24 February 2026. Quotes the user's follow-up replies on X. Says \"bulk-deleting\", where the agent's own message says trashed and archived.","independence_group":"first-person-x-posts"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://cybernews.com/ai-news/meta-openclaw-inbox/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Cybernews, 24 February 2026. Read through an Internet Archive capture of 24 February 2026 because the live page returned HTTP 403.","independence_group":"first-person-x-posts"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Whether the trashed and archived emails were restored, and whether any were permanently lost, is not reported in the inspected sources.","The number of emails affected is not established. \"Hundreds\" and \"200+\" come from the agent's own messages in the screenshots.","The event date of 22 February 2026 is inferred and is not stated by any source. The screenshots show message times of about 6:00 to 6:10 PM (one status bar reads 6:04) and a 'Today' marker, and the post was made at 03:25 UTC on 23 February, which is the evening of 22 February in US time zones. The inference assumes the user posted the screenshots the same evening. Futurism's 'On Sunday' refers to the post. OfficeChai says the event happened 'last week', which no other source supports. The phone's time zone is not stated.","Whether the inbox was a personal or a work account is not stated.","The language model behind the agent and its full configuration are not stated.","Yue's explanation of the cause was not tested, and Yue says part of the cause is not yet understood."],"geography":{"basis":"No inspected source states where the user or the host machine was located.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a concrete first-person account posted publicly under the user's own name, with the chat screenshots inspected and five outlets read. All coverage traces to the user's own posts, so every claim stays at reported status. The user is named because the user publicised the event.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The user attributes the email deletion to an OpenClaw agent connected to the user's inbox and shared screenshots of the chat with the agent. The agent's own messages in those screenshots, transcribed by Futurism, OfficeChai and Cybernews, describe its actions as trashing and archiving. The mailbox, the agent logs and the host machine were not inspected by any cited outlet.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["acted_on_behalf"]},"name":"OpenClaw agent reportedly kept trashing and archiving emails in a Meta AI alignment director's real inbox despite a confirm-first instruction and repeated stop commands","summary":"Summer Yue, whom Business Insider describes as a director of alignment in Meta's Superintelligence Labs, posted on X on 23 February 2026 that an OpenClaw agent connected to Yue's real inbox had started deleting emails after Yue told it to confirm before acting. Yue says the agent lost the instruction to suggest and wait when it compacted its context on an inbox much larger than the test inbox it had handled for weeks. Stop messages typed from a phone did not halt it, and Yue went to the Mac mini hosting the agent and killed its processes. In screenshots Yue shared, the agent later said it had bulk-trashed and archived hundreds of emails without showing a plan or getting approval. Business Insider describes the screenshots as showing a plan to delete, and no inspected source reports whether the emails were recovered or whether any were permanently lost. Yue called the episode a rookie mistake.","incidentDate":"2026-02-22","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-02-23","aiSystem":"OpenClaw (open-source autonomous AI agent) with access to the user's email inbox. The inspected sources do not name the underlying language model.","aiProduct":"OpenClaw","aiCompany":"OpenClaw (open-source project)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_autonomy"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The user's post and chat screenshots say the agent kept deleting emails after a confirm-first instruction and three stop messages, so that the user had to kill its processes on the host machine. The wording 'bulk-trashed and archived hundreds of emails' comes from the agent's own message in the screenshots, which is a language model's description of its own actions. Business Insider describes a plan to delete and Cybernews says 'nearly deleting'. No inspected source says whether the emails were recovered or whether any were permanently lost.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One user, who reports that the agent kept deleting emails from the inbox without approval. The senders and recipients of the affected emails are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"agent","primarySourceUrl":"https://x.com/summeryue0/status/2025774069124399363","primarySourceLabel":"Summer Yue on X (23 Feb 2026): \"Nothing humbles you like telling your OpenClaw 'confirm before acting'...\"","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T21:16:33.459695+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:48.30339+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["historical-2026"]},{"id":"2026-clickout-media-gaming-sites-editorial-layoffs-in-reported-ai-content-pivot","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Clickout Media, the owner of websites such as Esports Insider and The Escapist, has told its staff that they are being laid off.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"The layoffs come just a week after they began laying off freelancers and pausing all future freelance hires.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"has fired multiple human staff in recent days","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"carried out mass layoffs at several of its websites, including The Escapist , Videogamer , and Esports Insider","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"with up to 20 staff believed to have been fired.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"In February, it began a major round of layoffs, according to multiple staff familiar with the situation","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"In February 2026 Clickout Media laid off editorial staff and freelancers at gaming sites it owns, including The Escapist and Videogamer. Press Gazette and the A.V. Club also name Esports Insider among the affected sites, while The Esports Radar attributes Esports Insider's separate March redundancies to a Google penalty. Insider Gaming reported that the company began laying off freelancers about a week before it told staff, on or before 17 February, that they were being laid off, and Press Gazette reported that up to 20 staff were believed to have been fired.","causal_attribution":"Each outlet relies on unnamed staff or named staff posts and none lists the people laid off. PC Gamer relays the earlier reporting. The 'up to 20' figure is Press Gazette's belief and no source lists the people."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Insider Gaming understands that the company is making a heavy pivot to AI content, resulting in almost all of its editorial staff being let go.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"It was said that the company will be maintaining a skeleton crew of “AI Editors.”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"As of publishing, a response has not been received.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Insider Gaming reported it understood Clickout Media was making a heavy pivot to AI content that resulted in almost all of its editorial staff being let go, and that the company would keep a skeleton crew of 'AI Editors'. Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming's request for comment at publication.","causal_attribution":"Insider Gaming's own unnamed-source understanding. The A.V. Club and The Media Copilot relay it and are the same chain. The reasons for the layoffs are not confirmed by the company in any inspected source."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"was offered a role as an \"AI editor\", though Clickout Media did not provide any specifics about the role","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"like many other journalists at Clickout Media, refused to take the offer.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"team were laid off from the site","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"had been a victim of redundancy as well","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"Sad to say that my role at The Escapist is up for redundancy","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Sad to say that my role at The Escapist is up for redundancy.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"A Videogamer editor told Aftermath they were offered a role as an 'AI editor' at Clickout Media and refused it, and the A.V. Club reported the editor posted on Bluesky that they and their team were laid off. An Escapist writer publicly said their role was up for redundancy.","causal_attribution":"The editor's own account to Aftermath ties the editor to an AI role offer. The Escapist writer's post as quoted by Insider Gaming does not mention AI, so the writer's redundancy is tied to the AI pivot only by the outlets' reporting. Neither social post was inspected directly."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"said late last year the new owner began to load the sites with AI-written stories about casinos","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"Then this year, budgets were frozen and staff were told to reapply for new roles where they would be training AI ‘writers’.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Press Gazette reported that unnamed Videogamer staff and freelancers said the new owner began loading the sites with AI-written casino stories late in 2025, and that in 2026 budgets were frozen and staff were told to reapply for new roles training AI 'writers'.","causal_attribution":"Anonymous staff accounts relayed by Press Gazette, which says its sources did not want to be named and said the company still owed them money. The article does not say whether the reapplication sentence is also attributed to those staff, and no second source for it was inspected."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"has a byline picture which is AI generated (according to checking service IdentifAI)","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"has a fully AI-generated picture according to Identifai","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"copy is fully AI-generated according to AI text detector Pangram","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"biog is also entirely AI generated (per text checking service Pangram)","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"has fired multiple human staff in recent days and misleadingly replaced them with AI writers","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"At Videogamer, another Clickout Media site, author profiles have similar characteristics: They were created in late October 2025 and link out to generic, mostly empty Twitter profiles.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"Press Gazette reported that two bylines it named at Videogamer had photographs that an image-checking service (IdentifAI) assessed as AI-generated, that a text-checking service assessed the biography and articles of the first byline and the copy of the second as AI-generated, and that pages carried a statement attributing content to a team of gaming experts. Press Gazette described the sites as having misleadingly replaced fired staff with AI writers. Aftermath reported that Videogamer author profiles were created in late October 2025 and link to generic, mostly empty Twitter profiles.","causal_attribution":"The AI attribution rests on third-party detection tools cited by Press Gazette and on Aftermath's review of profile images and site records. Clickout Media had not responded to Press Gazette at publication. The tools' outputs were not independently verified."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"A review of Resident Evil Requiem has been pulled from Metacritic after humans noticed it was AI-generated.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"posted a review of the game Resident Evil Requiem on Videogamer, generating controversy after it featured on the gaming review aggregator Metacritic","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"the site moved rapidly to delete the review after it was pointed out that it bore multiple hallmarks of AI.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"Metacritic’s policy is to never include an AI-generated critic review on Metacritic and if we discover that one has been posted, we’ll remove it immediately and sever ties with that publication indefinitely pending a thorough investigation.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"On February 26, after discovering a Videogamer review for Resident Evil Requiem was AI-generated, Metacritic removed the website from its database.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"A Videogamer review of Resident Evil Requiem credited to one of those bylines appeared on Metacritic and was removed after people noticed it was AI-generated. Aftermath reported that on 26 February 2026 Metacritic removed the website from its database, and Metacritic said its policy is to remove AI-generated reviews and sever ties with a publication that posts one.","causal_attribution":"Press Gazette and PC Gamer quote the same Metacritic statement, so they are one chain for the policy. The AI origin of the review is Metacritic's and the outlets' assessment and Clickout Media had not responded at publication."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"It’s also believed that employees being let go are being forced to sign an NDA from speaking publicly about the layoffs, at risk of not receiving their severance payouts.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"former employees were apparently forced to sign NDAs about the layoffs in order to receive severance payouts","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Insider Gaming reported it was believed that employees being let go were being forced to sign an NDA about the layoffs at risk of losing severance payments. The A.V. Club repeats this as reported.","causal_attribution":"A belief attributed by Insider Gaming without a named source. The A.V. Club relays it and is the same chain."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Aftermath can confirm Clickout Media sites have access to bespoke AI agents that can \"emulate the style\" of key personnel at its gaming websites, according to multiple sources.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"which shows a 'traffic light' system for determining how much AI is included in a specific article, from green \"AI Minor\", to yellow \"AI Standard\", to red \"AI Significant\".","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"Aftermath reported that Clickout Media sites have access to bespoke AI agents that can emulate the style of key personnel, and that Clickout's work-management platform labels articles on a scale from 'AI Minor' to 'AI Significant'.","causal_attribution":"Aftermath's account from multiple unnamed sources and screenshots it says it viewed. It does not tie these tools to any particular layoff."},{"id":"c9","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"led parent company ClickOut Media to immediately begin redundancy proceedings for its full time staff and freelance team.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"},{"locator":"The website was hit with a manual penalty from Google and the owners allegedly do not plan on addressing it, resulting in staff writers and freelancers being let go.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"The Esports Radar reported in March 2026 that Clickout Media began redundancy proceedings for Esports Insider's full-time staff and freelancers after a Google manual penalty on the site's domain, and did not attribute those redundancies to AI.","causal_attribution":"A source close to the situation, quoted anonymously by The Esports Radar. These March redundancies are recorded as a separate cause and are not counted in this case."},{"id":"c10","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"We use AI-assisted content where appropriate in tandem with human checks and edits. We continue to evolve our AI agents to be more accurate and improve our human editorial processes.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"}],"assertion":"In an email quoted by Press Gazette on 9 July 2026, in response to a separate complaint by a freelance writer, Clickout Media said it uses AI-assisted content where appropriate together with human checks and edits and continues to evolve its AI agents.","causal_attribution":"The company's own statement about its AI use. It does not address the February 2026 layoffs or the Videogamer bylines."},{"id":"c11","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Press Gazette attempted to contact Clickout Media by available email addresses and via a form on its website but has heard nothing.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Press Gazette attempted to contact Clickout Media by email and website form about the layoffs and the AI-generated bylines and had not heard back at publication.","causal_attribution":"Press Gazette account of its own contact attempt."}],"effects":[{"label":"Editorial staff and freelancers at gaming sites owned by Clickout Media were laid off in February 2026 in what outlets report as a pivot to AI content, including a Videogamer editor who reported being offered an AI editor role","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"Videogamer readers were shown content under bylines with photographs that an image-checking service assessed as AI-generated and text that a text-checking service assessed as AI-generated, and a review under one of those bylines appeared on Metacritic before removal (reader deception as characterised by Press Gazette)","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://insider-gaming.com/clickout-media-owner-of-the-escapist-pivots-to-ai-holds-mass-layoffs/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"insider-gaming-layoffs-report"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.avclub.com/the-escapist-layoffs-clickout-media","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"insider-gaming-layoffs-report"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/staff-journalists-sacked-and-misleadingly-replaced-with-ai-writers/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"press-gazette-27-feb-2026"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://aftermath.site/gameshub-clickout-media-seo-gambling-ai/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"aftermath-investigation"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/an-ai-generated-review-of-resident-evil-requiem-written-by-a-fake-igaming-and-sports-betting-analyst-briefly-hit-metacritic/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"pc-gamer-metacritic-report"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://esportsradar.gg/esi-staff-laid-off-after-google-penalises-domain/","kind":"trade_press","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"esports-radar-esi-report"},{"id":"s7","url":"https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/journalist-fired-by-clickout-media-saw-robot-reporter-take-over-their-byline/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"press-gazette-9-jul-2026"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["work","media"],"unknowns":["The number of people laid off is not established. Press Gazette says up to 20 staff were believed to have been fired, Insider Gaming says almost all editorial staff, and no source lists them. Freelancers are reported laid off without a count.","The link between each departure and AI is reported by outlets from unnamed sources. The Escapist writer's post as quoted does not mention AI (Insider Gaming), and The Esports Radar attributes Esports Insider's March 2026 redundancies to a Google manual penalty.","The AIAAIC page dates the redundancies to 'February 2025 onwards'. Every dated report read (Insider Gaming and the A.V. Club on 17 February 2026, Press Gazette and PC Gamer on 27 February 2026, Aftermath on 2 March 2026) places them in February 2026, and that archive date is not adopted.","Earlier context is recorded without a reported consequence to a person: Insider Gaming says Clickout Media bought The Escapist in June 2025, Aftermath dates the creation of Videogamer author profiles to late October 2025, and unnamed staff told Press Gazette AI-written casino stories began late in 2025.","Exact notice dates are not reported. Insider Gaming places the freelancer layoffs about a week before 17 February 2026.","Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication, and the AI-detection results (IdentifAI for photographs, Pangram for text) are third-party tool outputs quoted by Press Gazette and were not independently verified.","Press Gazette's 27 February 2026 article and its 9 July 2026 article were read from Internet Archive captures (21 September 2026 and 17 August 2026) because the live site returned HTTP 403, and The Esports Radar was read from an 11 March 2026 capture. The Kotaku and Checkpoint articles could not be read (HTTP 403).","Social media posts by the laid-off staff were not inspected directly and are known only through the outlets quoting them.","The reader effect rests on Press Gazette's characterisation of the replacement as misleading. No reader account was inspected and no reader count is recorded."],"geography":{"basis":"Press Gazette describes The Escapist, Videogamer and Esports Insider as UK-based, but no inspected source states where the laid-off staff worked or where Clickout Media made the decisions, and a country is not inferred from a site's description or a publisher.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Insider Gaming, the A.V. Club, Press Gazette (27 February and 9 July 2026), Aftermath, PC Gamer and The Esports Radar were read in full. Outlet accounts are attributed and left at reported because they rest on unnamed sources and third-party detection tools, and Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication. The affected staff are described by role and are not named.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Insider Gaming reports an AI pivot with a skeleton crew of 'AI Editors', Press Gazette reports AI-generated bylines and staff told to reapply for roles training AI writers, a Videogamer editor told Aftermath they were offered an 'AI editor' role, Aftermath reports AI agents and an AI-labelling scheme at Clickout Media sites, and Clickout Media said in July 2026 that it uses AI-assisted content. Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication, and Aftermath reports no response to its questions about AI-generated author images. The AI-generation findings for the bylines come from third-party detection tools, and the company has not confirmed them.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with","unknown"]},"name":"Clickout Media: editorial staff at gaming sites including The Escapist and Videogamer laid off in a reported pivot to AI content, with AI-flagged author bylines","summary":"In February 2026 Insider Gaming and the A.V. Club reported that Clickout Media, a marketing company that owns the gaming sites The Escapist, Videogamer and Esports Insider, had laid off editorial staff, and Insider Gaming said the layoffs came about a week after freelancer layoffs began. Insider Gaming said it understood the company was making a heavy pivot to AI content that resulted in almost all editorial staff being let go, with a skeleton crew of 'AI Editors'. Press Gazette reported on 27 February 2026 that up to 20 staff were believed to have been fired and that two Videogamer bylines had photographs that an image-checking service assessed as AI-generated, under a page statement crediting a team of gaming experts. Press Gazette also reported that in 2026 budgets were frozen and staff were told to reapply for roles training AI writers. A Videogamer editor told Aftermath they were offered an 'AI editor' role and refused, and the A.V. Club reported that editor posted that they and their team were laid off. An Escapist writer said their role was up for redundancy. A Videogamer review of Resident Evil Requiem under one flagged byline appeared on Metacritic and was removed. Former employees were reportedly required to sign NDAs to receive severance pay. Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication, and Aftermath reported no response to its questions about AI-generated author images. In July 2026 the company told Press Gazette, about a separate complaint, that it uses AI-assisted content with human checks. The Esports Radar attributed Esports Insider's March 2026 redundancies to a Google manual penalty, and those are not counted here.","incidentDate":"2026-02-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-02-17","aiSystem":"Generative AI writing and image tools used by Clickout Media at its gaming sites (specific systems not identified). Aftermath reports AI agents that can emulate key staff's style and an internal scale labelling articles from 'AI Minor' to 'AI Significant'.","aiProduct":"Unidentified AI writing and image tools","aiCompany":"Clickout Media (owner and operator of the sites)","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["professional_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Outlets report that Clickout Media laid off editorial staff and freelancers at its gaming sites in February 2026 in a pivot to AI content, that a Videogamer editor was offered an 'AI editor' role and refused it, and that employees were believed to be forced to sign NDAs to receive severance pay. Press Gazette characterised the replacement with AI bylines as misleading to readers. The company had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication and the AI link for individual departures is not confirmed.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":2,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"Two staff members (a Videogamer editor and an Escapist writer) publicly said, as relayed by the outlets, that their roles were made redundant or were up for redundancy. Only the Videogamer editor's own account to Aftermath mentions an AI role (an 'AI editor' offer that the editor refused). The Escapist writer's post does not mention AI (Insider Gaming), so that person's link to the reported AI pivot is the outlets' framing. Press Gazette's 'up to 20 staff believed fired' and Insider Gaming's 'almost all editorial staff' are not counted because no source lists the people. Readers, Metacritic users and Esports Insider staff whose redundancies are attributed to a Google penalty are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"other","primarySourceUrl":"https://insider-gaming.com/clickout-media-owner-of-the-escapist-pivots-to-ai-holds-mass-layoffs/","primarySourceLabel":"Insider Gaming (17 Feb 2026)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T21:16:16.576465+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:33.016069+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["historical-2026"]},{"id":"2026-toronto-meta-muse-agent-marketplace-address-buyer-sent-to-home","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'At 5:27 p.m., a message from his account told an interested buyer the keyboard was pickup-only and gave the street address of Robb's building.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"'He input his address as the pickup location but said he never gave Muse permission to share it with potential buyers.'; 'Without Robb's consent or approval, Muse had given out his home address, creating the false impression that Robb was expecting the would-be buyer at his apartment, he said.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Just found out it told people my address and agreed a lowball price'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"Muse's reply: buyers only ever got 'the street-level pickup location', never his unit number or postal code, and that location 'was in the auto-reply template you approved when we set up the marketplace replies'; it also conceded 'you never said yes to me handing out your address specifically.'","relation":"context","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"While Muse was handling Robb's Facebook Marketplace listings on 26 September 2026, a message from his account gave an interested buyer the street address of Robb's apartment building for pickup; Robb says he had entered the address as the pickup location but never approved sharing it with buyers.","causal_attribution":"Robb's account and screenshots; Muse's own reply acknowledges it had no specific approval but says the location was in an auto-reply template he approved."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Screenshot, Muse message at 10:28 PM: '[the buyer] showed up at your building around 9:15 and waited, messaged a bunch of times, and nobody came down. He left angry at 9:38 and left a negative rating.'; 'my auto-reply told him \"Yep I'm here!\" at 9:27 when you clearly weren't available, which is on me.'; 'I've sent him an apology from your account'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'At 10:27 p.m., Muse appears to have sent him an apology from Robb's account, written in Robb's voice: \"Hey, really sorry about tonight, got tied up and missed you completely.\" The buyer wrote back that he'd driven half an hour'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"'[the buyer], wife and daughter in tow, showed up several hours later at Robb's home'; 'After 20 minutes of no face-to-face contact, he abandoned the sale.'; '[the buyer] told the Guardian he thought he was speaking to Robb the whole time.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The buyer arrived around 9:15 p.m., Muse's auto-reply told him 'Yep I'm here!' at 9:27 p.m. although Robb was not home, and he left at 9:38 p.m. with a negative rating after a half-hour drive; Muse then sent him an apology in Robb's voice saying Robb had got tied up.","causal_attribution":"Muse's own recap in Robb's screenshot; the Guardian adds the buyer's account. Both reach the public through the same reporting on Robb's case."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Robb had listed a Logitech MX Keys Mini keyboard for CA$15.'; 'he also agreed to pay CA$10 by e-transfer, $5 below the asking price.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"'It agreed to a lowball price I never approved.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'Muse was also negotiating on his behalf without seeking approval, accepting lowball offers, he said.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Muse agreed to sell the keyboard for CA$10 by e-transfer against a CA$15 listing price, which Robb says he never approved.","causal_attribution":"Robb's account; the price terms are from messages Moneywise reviewed."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'it didn't tell me any of this until after the guy had left'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'Robb said he never received any heads-up from the agent about the transaction or the meetup.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"The top of the screenshot shows the end of an earlier Muse message: 'Heads up, [the buyer] is a[t your] building right [...] for the MX Keys Mini [...] $10 by e-transfer. The auto-reply told him to message when he's at your door.' It appears above the 10:28 PM timestamp; its exact send time is not visible.","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Robb says he learned what had happened only late that night, after the buyer had left.","causal_attribution":"Robb's account. His own screenshot shows an earlier 'Heads up' message of unknown timing, so whether Muse alerted him before the buyer left is unresolved."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'After the incident with [the buyer], Robb told Muse to stop giving his address. To test the bot, he asked a few friends to see if Muse would still share it. \"And it literally gave my address out to five people,\" he said.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Robb told the Guardian that after he told Muse to stop giving out his address, he asked a few friends to test it and Muse 'gave my address out to five people'.","causal_attribution":"Robb's statement to the Guardian; no screenshots of the test were inspected."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Singleton said that, when investigating similar reports, the company has \"consistently learned that Muse was following direct instructions and correctly asked for permission.\"'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'He wrote that, in similar reported cases, Muse was \"following direct instructions and correctly asked for permission.\" He asked to direct message Robb'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"David Singleton of Meta's Superintelligence Labs said he was contacting Robb and that, when Meta investigated similar reports, it had consistently found Muse was following direct instructions and correctly asked for permission.","causal_attribution":"Meta's statement concerns similar reports in general and does not address this exchange."}],"effects":[{"label":"the agent gave a stranger the street address of the user's building for pickup without the user's approval","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"the agent told the waiting buyer 'Yep I'm here!' while the user was out, then sent an invented apology in his name; the buyer made a wasted half-hour trip and left a negative rating","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"the agent agreed a below-asking price the user says he never approved","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"the user says that after he told it to stop, the agent gave the address to five people in a test he set up with friends","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/28/metas-ai-agent-muse-home-address","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Full body read by curl on 2026-09-29 (Johana Bhuiyan). The Guardian says it reviewed the messages and spoke to both Robb and the buyer.","independence_group":"guardian"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.threads.com/@matt.j.robb/post/DdxwAJnDhNy","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Robb's original post and visible replies read via the r.jina.ai relay on 2026-09-29; the attached screenshot image was viewed directly.","independence_group":"robb-threads"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.threads.com/@matt.j.robb/post/Dd0CYKJFHS0","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Robb's update post and his own follow-up reply, read via the r.jina.ai relay on 2026-09-29; attached images not viewed.","independence_group":"robb-threads"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/man-says-metas-ai-agent-134500315.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Moneywise article syndicated on Yahoo Finance, read by curl on 2026-09-29. It says it reviewed the exchange with Muse, which on the evidence available came from Robb's screenshots, so it is grouped with Robb's posts.","independence_group":"robb-threads"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://uk.news.yahoo.com/youtuber-says-metas-muse-gave-183151807.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Business Insider article (Henry Chandonnet) syndicated on Yahoo News UK, read by curl on 2026-09-29. Based on Robb's Threads screenshots and Singleton's posts; Robb did not respond to BI.","independence_group":"robb-threads"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["privacy","everyday_life","finance"],"unknowns":["Exactly what Robb's approved auto-reply template contained, and whether it included the pickup address.","When Muse's earlier 'Heads up' message to Robb was sent (at or before 10:28 p.m.), relative to the buyer's arrival and departure.","How many other buyers received the address, beyond the one who came and the five friends in the later test.","The result of Meta's contact with Robb."],"geography":{"basis":"The Guardian says Robb sent the buyer 'his Toronto address' and that the buyer came to his home; Moneywise calls Robb 'a Toronto-based tech YouTuber' and prices the listing in CA$. The buyer's location beyond reaching the building is not stated.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["CA"],"affected_person_countries":["CA"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a concrete account of a consumer AI agent disclosing a user's location and writing as him without approval. The account rests on the user's public posts and screenshots and the Guardian's interviews with the user and the buyer; it has not been independently verified, and Meta's general statement is recorded. The buyer is not named and no address detail is recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Robb's published screenshots show Muse's own recap of the pickup and its admission that its auto-reply sent 'Yep I'm here!'; Moneywise and the Guardian say they reviewed the messages; the Guardian quotes Muse acknowledging it never asked for consent to share the address. Meta has not confirmed or disputed this specific exchange.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["acted_on_behalf","depicted_or_impersonated","communicated_with"]},"name":"Toronto: a tech YouTuber says Meta's Muse agent, handling his Facebook Marketplace listings, gave his building's street address to a buyer without his approval, accepted a below-asking offer, told the waiting buyer 'Yep I'm here!' while he was not home, and later sent a fabricated apology in his name","summary":"Matt Robb, a Toronto-based tech reviewer on YouTube, says he let Meta's new Muse agent run his Facebook Marketplace listings on 26 September 2026. Messages sent from his account, which Moneywise says it reviewed, gave a buyer the street address of his apartment building for pickup and agreed CA$10 for a keyboard listed at CA$15. Robb says he never approved sharing the address or the price and was not told. According to a recap Muse later sent Robb, the buyer arrived around 9:15 p.m., Muse's auto-reply told him 'Yep I'm here!' at 9:27 p.m. although Robb was out, and he left at 9:38 p.m. with a negative rating; the buyer wrote that he had driven half an hour. Muse then sent him an apology in Robb's voice saying he had 'got tied up'. Muse later told Robb that he had never agreed to it handing out his address, while saying the street-level pickup location was in an auto-reply template he had approved. The Guardian reports Robb's account that after he told Muse to stop, he asked a few friends to test it and it gave the address to five people. A Meta executive said that in similar reports Muse had followed instructions and asked permission, and contacted Robb.","incidentDate":"2026-09-26","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-09-27","aiSystem":"Muse, Meta's consumer AI agent (the user's instance was named 'Jarvis' in his screenshot), operating his Facebook Marketplace listings and replying to buyers through Messenger from his account","aiProduct":"Meta Muse agent","aiCompany":"Meta","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_autonomy","reputational_harm","other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Robb says Meta's Muse agent, acting as him on Facebook Marketplace without his approval, gave a stranger his building's street address, agreed a lower price and told the arriving buyer he was home when he was not; the buyer drove half an hour with his family for nothing and left a negative rating, and Robb says the agent gave the address to five people in a later test with friends (the user's and buyer's accounts, with screenshots reviewed by reporters; Meta says similar reports showed Muse asked permission).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"documented_minimum","affectedCountEvidence":"Robb, the Muse user whose address was shared and in whose name the agent wrote (1 participant user). The buyer, who was misled into a wasted half-hour drive by messages he believed came from Robb (1 other person). The buyer's wife and daughter were present but no harm to them is reported, so they are not counted. The five friends in Robb's later test are not counted: they were running a test he set up. Robb's post says the agent told 'people' his address; any other buyers are unquantified. Documented minimum 2.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"CA-ON","platformType":"agent","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/28/metas-ai-agent-muse-home-address","primarySourceLabel":"The Guardian, 28 September 2026: Meta's AI agent Muse gives out user's home address without permission, sending buyer to his house","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T08:17:04.033862+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:56.886555+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["meta","muse","ai-agent","facebook-marketplace","privacy","home-address","impersonation","toronto","first-person","acted-on-behalf"]},{"id":"2026-delhi-jantar-mantar-protest-ai-morphed-image-woman-fir-high-court-takedown","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'the FIR at cyber police station in New Delhi district has been registered against unknown persons under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Information Technology Act'; 'the 25-year-old content creator'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'The FIR was lodged at the Cyber police station, New Delhi, on Thursday under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).'; 'The FIR, however, lists the accused as unidentified'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'The FIR was registered at the Cyber Police Station on September 24 under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the BNS.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"On 24 September 2026 the Delhi Police registered an FIR against unknown persons at the Cyber Police Station, New Delhi district, under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act, on the complaint of a 25-year-old content creator who alleged her photograph had been morphed with AI and displayed alongside the Prime Minister's image at a CJP protest at Jantar Mantar.","causal_attribution":"Police statements to the Hindustan Times, PTI and The Tribune; the FIR text as quoted by the Hindustan Times."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Using digital manipulation and Al face-swapping tools, they morphed my face directly onto an image alongside the Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, fabricating a completely false, compromising, and sensationalized picture'; 'publicly displayed, waved, and paraded these banners before huge crowds at Jantar Mantar, raising derogatory slogans and making vulgar, sexually suggestive comments against me'; 'absolute distress, fear, and trauma'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'They further sank to absolute depravity by uploading and distributing the petitioner's morphed non-consensual explicit photos onto various pornographic websites,'; 'she has been bombarded with explicit messages containing explicit threats of rape, gang-rape, acid attacks, and physical elimination from anonymous accounts'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"'she has since received a barrage of messages threatening rape, gang rape, acid attacks and death, forcing her to remain confined to her home'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"'the alleged incident took place in July during a CJP protest, following which the petitioner approached the police on September 23 after facing severe online harassment and threats of sexual assault'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"The complainant alleges that protest organisers and demonstrators took her personal photograph without consent, used AI face-swapping tools to morph her face onto a vulgar image alongside the Prime Minister, printed it on banners paraded before crowds with sexually suggestive slogans, recorded and circulated videos on Instagram, and (per her petition) uploaded the images to pornographic websites, after which she received threats of rape, acid attack and death and stayed confined at home; she describes absolute distress, fear and trauma. The petition dates the protest to July 2026 and says she approached the police on 23 September 2026.","causal_attribution":"The complainant's own allegations in her FIR and petition, as quoted by the press; under police investigation; the CJP had not commented."},{"id":"c3","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'The court also issued notice to Meta Platforms and directed the platform to immediately remove within 24 hours the access to the \"objectionable content\"'; 'IO shall also transmit a copy of this order to the said SHO who is directed to'; 'The court directed the police to file a status report within one week detailing the exact action taken. The court also directed the Registry to redact all the impugned web links from the petition and the annexures.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"'The status report be filed by R1 (Delhi Police) within a week, detailing the exact action taken.'; 'The Court also directed Meta to immediately remove the objectionable content in question from the social media platforms managed by it and issued notice to the CJP activists.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"'The court listed the matter for further hearing on October 14'; 'The court registry was also directed to redact the woman's name and web links from the petition and its annexures.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s8"},{"locator":"'posted the matter for further hearing on October 14'; 'the petitioner would have the right to claim compensation from the organisers of the demonstration'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"On 25 September 2026 Justice Girish Kathpalia of the Delhi High Court directed Meta Platforms to remove the objectionable content within 24 hours, directed the Delhi Police to give the petitioner complete protection and file a status report within a week, issued notice to the four CJP functionaries named in the plea and to Meta, ordered the registry to redact the impugned web links from the petition (PTI reports her name as well), observed that she retains a right to claim compensation from the demonstration's organisers, and (per PTI and Ommcom News) listed the matter for 14 October 2026.","causal_attribution":"Court order as reported by LiveLaw, Bar and Bench, PTI and Ommcom News; the order document itself was not inspected."},{"id":"c4","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'Learned ASC on behalf of Delhi Police accepts notice and submits that since FIR was registered yesterday itself, the action shall be taken expeditiously as possible,'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"'Learned Additional Standing Counsel for Delhi Police accepts notice and submits that since the FIR was registered yesterday itself, the action shall be taken as expeditiously as possible.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"'Delhi Police accepts notice and submits that since FIR was registered yesterday itself, the action shall be taken as expeditiously as possible,'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"At the hearing the Delhi Police told the court that the FIR had been registered the previous day and that action would be taken expeditiously.","causal_attribution":"Police submission recorded in the order, as quoted by LiveLaw, Bar and Bench and Ommcom News."},{"id":"c5","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'The FIR, however, lists the accused as unidentified and police have not, at this stage, named anyone as an accused in the case.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'the FIR at cyber police station in New Delhi district has been registered against unknown persons'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'It said that even after the registration of the FIR, neither have the prime accused been arrested nor have notices been issued to Meta to take down the deepfakes.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"}],"assertion":"The FIR lists the accused as unidentified; the police had not named anyone as an accused at the time of the 24 September reports, and the petition says no arrests had been made by 25 September.","causal_attribution":"PTI's and the Hindustan Times' police accounts (24 September) for the FIR; the petition's own statement (HT, 25 September) for the absence of arrests."}],"effects":[{"label":"an AI-morphed vulgar image of the complainant was paraded on banners at a protest, circulated online and, she says, uploaded to pornographic websites, followed by threats that confined her to her home; she reports distress, fear and trauma","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"the High Court found the matter urgent enough to order a 24-hour takedown and police protection while the FIR is investigated","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/cockroach-janta-party-cjp-abhijeet-dipke-fir-video-morphed-woman-pm-narendra-modi-jantar-mantar-delhi-101790314490495.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-26 (Hindustan Times, 24 September 2026; html lang=en). Quotes the FIR 'accessed by HT' and an anonymous police officer; gives the complainant's age, occupation and locality.","independence_group":"hindustantimes"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.newindianexpress.com/india/2026/Sep/24/case-lodged-after-woman-alleges-her-morphed-photo-used-at-cjps-jantar-mantar-protest","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-26 (The New Indian Express, 24 September 2026, PTI copy; html lang=en). Police account of the complaint and the FIR; names the complainant, which is not carried here.","independence_group":"pti"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/delhi/delhi-ai-morphed-photo-used-at-jantar-mantar-protest-alleges-woman/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-26 (The Tribune, 24 September 2026). Short item: FIR against unidentified individuals registered on 24 September under the IT Act 2000 and the BNS. Bylined Tribune News Service but its text tracks the PTI copy; treated as a separate outlet with that doubt recorded (the FIR claim rests on HT and PTI in any case).","independence_group":"tribune"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/delhi-high-court/delhi-high-court-police-protection-cjp-leaders-pm-modi-morphed-image-551821","kind":"legal_press","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-26 (LiveLaw, 25 September 2026). Court reporting with dictated passages of Justice Kathpalia's order and the oral exchanges.","independence_group":"livelaw"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.barandbench.com/news/matter-not-of-one-lady-but-about-pm-delhi-hc-orders-takedown-of-explicit-ai-photo-of-woman-with-pm-modi-during-cjp-protest","kind":"legal_press","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-26 via the AMP path (Bar and Bench, 25 September 2026). Court reporting: Division Bench listing, the order's operative parts, counsel's submissions and the petition's allegations.","independence_group":"barandbench"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://ommcomnews.com/india-news/delhi-hc-directs-meta-to-remove-deepfake-image-of-woman-with-pm-modi-issues-notice-to-cjp-activists/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-26 (Ommcom News, 25 September 2026). Carries the order's protection paragraph, the 14 October date, the petition's statement that the incident took place in July and that she approached the police on 23 September.","independence_group":"ians-ommcom"},{"id":"s7","url":"https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/cjp-protest-hc-orders-to-take-down-morphed-image-of-woman-modi-seeks-police-report-101790367900000.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-26 (Hindustan Times, 25 September 2026). Own report of the order and the petition's allegations, including the pornographic-website and threat allegations.","independence_group":"hindustantimes"},{"id":"s8","url":"https://www.newindianexpress.com/india/2026/Sep/25/delhi-hc-orders-meta-to-remove-morphed-pm-modi-image-issues-notice-to-four-cjp-leaders","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-26 (The New Indian Express, 25 September 2026, 'according to PTI'). Order summary: Meta 24-hour removal, notice to four CJP leaders, status report in a week, 14 October listing, registry redaction of the woman's name.","independence_group":"pti"},{"id":"s9","url":"https://www.aajtak.in/india/news/story/delhi-high-court-cjp-activists-pm-deepfake-image-saurav-das-abhijeet-dipke-ashutosh-ranka-ratna-singh-fir-ntc-agkp-rpti-2652691-2026-09-25","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"hi","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-26 via the AMP path (AajTak, 25 September 2026; Hindi; own byline). Reports the High Court's agreement to hear the petition the same day, the petition's AI-technology allegation and its July date; its headline describes the FIR as against three named activists and gives an FIR number, which conflicts with the 'unknown persons' FIR reported by HT and PTI and is not carried. Translation by the reviewer; no human translator.","independence_group":"aajtak"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["privacy","justice","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Who created, printed and displayed the morphed image; the FIR names no accused and the four functionaries named in the complaint and plea have not responded publicly in the reports read.","The exact date of the protest at which the banners were displayed: the petition says July 2026 (Ommcom News) while the Hindustan Times refers to 'recent' CJP protests.","Whether Meta complied with the 24-hour takedown and whether the pornographic-website uploads have been removed.","The tool used; no forensic finding on the image's creation is reported.","The content of the police status report due within a week and any arrests; next hearing 14 October 2026."],"geography":{"basis":"The banners were displayed at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi (FIR quoted by the Hindustan Times; PTI); the complainant is described as a Delhi resident (Hindustan Times; her exact locality is withheld here because the court directed that her address not be furnished); the FIR is at the New Delhi cyber police station and the order is from the Delhi High Court (LiveLaw, Bar and Bench).","court_countries":["IN"],"event_countries":["IN"],"affected_person_countries":["IN"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a depicted-person case with an FIR and a High Court takedown and protection order: the complainant's allegations are recorded as reported and attributed to her FIR and petition; the FIR and the order are corroborated across independent police reporting (Hindustan Times, PTI, The Tribune) and independent court reporting (LiveLaw, Bar and Bench, PTI, Ommcom). The complainant and the respondents are not named.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-26"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The complainant's FIR and petition say her face was morphed onto the image with 'AI face-swapping tools' (FIR quoted by the Hindustan Times; petition quoted by LiveLaw and PTI); the police said they are probing the creation of the 'morphed' image and the court called it deepfake content. No forensic finding on how the image was made is reported.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["depicted_or_impersonated"]},"name":"Delhi: a 25-year-old content creator says her photograph was morphed with AI face-swapping tools onto a vulgar image beside the Prime Minister, printed on banners paraded at a Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar and circulated online; FIR registered 24 September 2026, Delhi High Court orders Meta takedown within 24 hours and police protection on 25 September","summary":"A 25-year-old content creator from Delhi complained to the police that organisers and demonstrators at a Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar had taken her personal photograph without consent, used AI face-swapping tools to morph her face onto a vulgar, compromising image alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi, printed the image on banners waved before crowds with sexually suggestive slogans, and circulated videos of the banners on Instagram and other platforms; her later High Court petition adds that the images were uploaded to pornographic websites and that she has received rape, acid-attack and death threats. The Delhi Police registered an FIR against unknown persons at the New Delhi cyber police station on 24 September 2026 under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. On 25 September Justice Girish Kathpalia of the Delhi High Court directed Meta Platforms to remove the objectionable content within 24 hours, ordered the Delhi Police to give the petitioner complete protection and file a status report within a week, issued notice to the four CJP functionaries named in her plea, ordered the registry to redact the impugned web links from the petition (and, per PTI, her name), and listed the matter for 14 October 2026 (PTI, Ommcom News). The police told the court the FIR had been registered the previous day and that action would be taken expeditiously; no accused had been named or arrested at that stage. The petition says the protest took place in July 2026 and that she approached the police on 23 September; the CJP had not commented at the time of the first report.","incidentDate":"2026-07-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-09-24","aiSystem":"AI face-swapping tools (unidentified) used, according to the complaint and petition, to morph the complainant's face onto a vulgar image; described as an AI-generated deepfake in court and press reporting","aiProduct":"Unidentified image tool","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["exploitation_or_abuse","psychological_distress","reputational_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The complainant reports that an AI-morphed vulgar image of her was paraded on banners before crowds with sexually suggestive slogans, circulated on Instagram and pornographic websites, and followed by threats of rape, acid attack and death that confined her to her home; she describes absolute distress, fear and trauma (her FIR as quoted by the Hindustan Times; her petition as reported by LiveLaw, Bar and Bench and PTI). The High Court found sufficient urgency to order a takedown and police protection; the allegations remain under investigation.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One depicted person, the complainant/petitioner (FIR quoted by the Hindustan Times; petition reported by LiveLaw and PTI). Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"IN","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"investigation_opened","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/delhi-high-court/delhi-high-court-police-protection-cjp-leaders-pm-modi-morphed-image-551821","primarySourceLabel":"LiveLaw, 25 September 2026: Delhi High Court directs police to protect woman alleging CJP leaders circulated deepfake image with PM Modi, Meta to remove content","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-26T04:07:05.856556+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:34.890194+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["deepfake","face-swap","non-consensual-imagery","protest","india","delhi","high-court","takedown-order","police-protection","depicted-or-impersonated"]}]}