X-user network smears politicians with deepfake videos

A doctored video of Labour MP Wes Streeting was distributed to X users making it appear as if he was calling fellow MP Diane Abbott a “stupid woman”. The X account network creates and shares such videos of politicians ahead of the general election, then supplements them with misleading comments to reinforce the impression of their authenticity.

I have been tracking some of the people behind the network and uncovering their tactics. Have their trolling gone too far?

The edited video features Ms Streeting appearing on the BBC’s Live Politics programme, where she can be heard whispering “stupid woman” as the presenter discusses Ms Abbott, despite the fact that she never said those words.

The video was posted to X (formerly Twitter) by a user called Men for Wes, who expressed his outrage at “really mean people” in the Labour Party in the comments section. Other users also flooded the comments section to support the video, calling it authentic.

One account claiming to be “Murray” and falsely claiming to be a “floor manager” for BBC Politics Live said: “This is real,” while others said: “You can clearly hear Wes Streeting calling Diahn Abbott a stupid bitch,” or “You can clearly hear him say stupid bitch. Wes Streeting you are an utter disgrace.”

One person wrongly suggested that the BBC had removed episodes of “Politics Live” from iPlayer, which may deter people from checking it out.

This clip and several others about politicians were recommended by X on the feed of one of BBC’s Undercover Voters. Undercover Voters are 24 fictional people with social media accounts created to explore what content is recommended to different types of voters during election time. Their profiles are private and they have no friends. They just like, follow and watch relevant content.

Videos recommended on Undercover Voter profiles have been viewed tens of thousands of times, leading politicians such as Streeting to denounce them as false.

Some X users pointed out that they believed it was fake, some responded with insulting comments, and some were clearly confused about what to believe.

The BBC has identified some of the users who post these videos, who describe their practice as “shitposting”, a term that typically refers to the mass posting of sarcastic, low-effort content to thwart constructive debate, distract people and provoke a response. This can come from people of all political views and does not have to be about politics.

But while some of their fake clips are clearly absurd and satirical, others falsely depict candidates making politically damaging statements, while in the comments sections, a network of X-users tries to make the clips seem credible.

Some of the videos contain inflammatory comments linked to the Gaza war and have targeted not only Ms Streeting, but also Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and another Labour candidate, Luke Akehurst.

X user chai_ste re-shared Wes Streeting’s video with the question “Is this real?”, as well as another doctored video of Mr Akehurst, whose open support for Israel and its actions in Gaza has made him unpopular with the left of the Labour party.

The video incorrectly portrays Gazza as boasting that he will be picked by “dumb” Geordies who think he is a footballer.

The fake floor manager “Murray” was this time a “sound engineer” and again posted “this is real”.

Other accounts who appeared to understand the joke posted asking, “Is this true?”, to which the original profile replied, “I have not seen any sources to disprove it so far!” Another account commented, “He just misspoke.”

There is also evidence that some of these accounts were behind another deepfake video of Sir Keir Starmer, about the Rochdale by-election earlier this year, which falsely suggested Starmer called Labour supporters “crazy” and suggested “they’d be happy if we were keeping points with Israel”.

The doctored videos of Streeting, Akehurst and Sir Keir were labelled as fake by a fact-checking service run by X readers hours after they were first shared, with Akehurst’s video also being flagged as “manipulated media”. However, the accounts which shared the posts do not appear to have been suspended and the posts have not been removed.

This group of accounts regularly interacts with each other, thus amplifying and engaging with each other’s posts, and some even coordinate their posts on Discord servers, an instant messaging and chat community, which they have dubbed the “Shitposting Army.”

Some X users frequently post about their concerns for the Palestinians in the Gaza war, as well as posts expressing support for Jeremy Corbyn and left-leaning Labour politicians. At least two of the people believed to be behind some of the accounts appear to be in their 20s or 30s and live in the UK.

The Men for Wes account repeatedly rejected my requests to speak on the phone and refused to identify itself, but did agree to answer my questions over message.

They said their aim was to attract viewers’ attention and “confuse them”. They called it a “corrective” to the way politicians “misrepresent themselves” and denied claims that politicians are a threat to democracy. They condemned the hatred towards politicians shared by other accounts.

They argued that politicians they support had been targeted by misinformation before, but in those cases the misinformation was spread by people in power and the mainstream media, not “random Twitter accounts.”

The user behind the chai_ste profile, who also declined to give his real name, mocked questions about whether the network of accounts was going too far with “shitposting.”

They self-deprecatingly claimed they were following the “Labour Party handbook”, and said they had been advised to post “obviously fake videos” as part of an “assignment” from the party so that “it wouldn’t be too obvious what we were actually doing”.

The doctored footage of Nigel Farage was one of the network’s most obviously satirical pieces.

The video edited out the Reform UK leader’s comments from a clip making light of the milkshake incident, making it appear as if he was making obscene comments about bodily fluids.

However, comments on other videos have argued for their authenticity and appear to be causing confusion among some people.

A user named Nigel, who replied to the Wes Streeting post on X, told me he initially thought the video might be real. The 64-year-old was planning on switching from the Conservatives to Labour for the first time, and said videos like this could undermine support for the party.

“This kind of stuff is damaging. Everywhere you look it seems there’s an attempt to attack the Labour front team. I’ve been told not to vote Labour more times by Labour supporters than Conservative supporters!” he said.

Another social media user, who asked to remain anonymous, contacted me to say that he has been following some of these accounts with concern since the fake video of Sir Keir was leaked.

He said: “Their strategy on how to market fake products was very calculated. It’s frustrating because I know people who have been fooled by this kind of thing before.”

However, many of the comments feature users claiming the content is fake.

X and Discord did not respond to the BBC’s points. X has publicly stated that “protecting and respecting the voice of our users is one of our core values.”

Discord says its online guidelines “allow everyone to express themselves and find community, but not at the expense of others.”