Jamie Lee Curtis has publicly criticised Meta and Mark Zuckerberg for failing to respond to her requests to remove a deepfake video falsely manipulating her image on Facebook and Instagram, highlighting ongoing challenges in combating AI-generated misinformation on social media platforms.
Award-winning actress and author Jamie Lee Curtis has recently taken to social media to express her frustration with Mark Zuckerberg and Meta over their inaction regarding an AI-generated deepfake video that misuses her likeness. This video, which has been widely circulated on Facebook and Instagram, distorts her image and message, promoting ideas contrary to her values and public persona.
In a post on her verified Instagram account, Curtis detailed her efforts to communicate directly with Zuckerberg, highlighting that she went through the necessary official channels to request the removal of the deepfake. However, she has reported no response from the company or its executives. The actress noted that since Zuckerberg does not follow her on the platform, she was left with no choice but to publicly share her grievances.
The deepfake in question features a manipulated clip from a past interview Curtis conducted with MSNBC, where she spoke about the Los Angeles wildfires. In the altered version, her context is changed to falsely suggest she is endorsing a brand. This manipulation not only misrepresents her but also underscores a growing concern among celebrities and public figures about the potential for generative AI technologies to distort reality in harmful ways.
The prevalence of AI-generated deepfakes has emerged as a critical issue, particularly for women in the entertainment industry. In recent years, several high-profile personalities, including Taylor Swift and Scarlett Johansson, have also fallen victim to such technology. Swift has previously condemned the use of her likeness in explicit contexts, while Johansson has taken a stand against AI-generated characters that closely resemble her past film roles. This trend has raised alarms among advocacy groups and creators alike, who argue that deepfakes can have serious repercussions, particularly when they are used for malicious purposes.
Meta has faced criticism for its inconsistent approach to deepfakes on its platforms. Although the company has removed certain fraudulent sexualised images of female celebrities after investigations exposed their prevalence, it has struggled to implement a comprehensive strategy for dealing with deeper ethical concerns surrounding deepfake videos. The Oversight Board has stated that non-consensual intimate deepfakes constitute a violation of privacy and personal dignity, disproportionately affecting women and girls.
In a blog post, Facebook, which operates under Meta, acknowledged that deepfakes pose a significant challenge for the tech industry, affecting public trust and safety. The company outlined that it would remove videos modified by AI if they mislead viewers about what a person purportedly said, using both staff and third-party fact-checkers to assess video authenticity. However, the ongoing debate about the application and regulation of deepfake technology has prompted many to call for stronger measures and oversight.
Despite these policies, past incidents illustrate the difficulties in enforcing them. In previous circumstances, Facebook did not remove notable deepfakes, including one featuring Zuckerberg himself, which was used artistically to comment on data privacy issues. Critics have pointed out that the company’s policy on such content can often lag behind the rapid evolution of technology, leading to situations where harmful content slips through.
Curtis’s recent public appeal highlights a growing urgency for more robust enforcement mechanisms and clearer guidelines to protect individuals from the misuse of their likenesses. As concerns about deepfakes escalate, her call to action may resonate not only with her peers in Hollywood but also with broader discussions on digital ethics, personal rights, and the implications of advancing AI technology.
As society grapples with the rapid proliferation of synthetic media, Curtis’s case serves as a crucial reminder of the need for accountability and proactive measures in the ever-evolving landscape of digital content creation.
Reference Map
1. Jamie Lee Curtis’s call to action regarding deepfake videos.
2. Prevalence and issues related to AI-manipulated images on Meta platforms.
3. Meta’s announced policies and challenges related to deepfakes.
4. Historical context regarding Meta’s handling of deepfakes of public figures.
5. Wider implications of deepfake technology and societal concerns.
Source: Noah Wire Services
- https://www.techtimes.com/articles/310304/20250512/jamie-lee-curtis-publicly-calls-out-mark-zuckerberg-meta-ignoring-ai-deepfake-video-takedown.htm – Please view link – unable to able to access data
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-facebook-sexualized-ai-deepfake-celebrity-images-spread/ – Meta has removed over a dozen fraudulent, sexualized images of famous female actors and athletes after a CBS News investigation found a high prevalence of AI-manipulated deepfake images on the company’s Facebook platform. Dozens of fake, highly sexualized images of the actors Miranda Cosgrove, Jennette McCurdy, Ariana Grande, Scarlett Johansson, and former tennis star Maria Sharapova have been shared widely by multiple Facebook accounts, garnering hundreds of thousands of likes and many reshares on the platform. The Oversight Board has made clear that non-consensual deepfake intimate images are a serious violation of privacy and personal dignity, disproportionately harming women and girls. These images are not just a misuse of technology — they are a form of abuse that can have lasting consequences.
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51018758 – Facebook has announced it will remove videos modified by artificial intelligence, known as deepfakes, from its platform. Deepfakes are computer-generated clips that are designed to look real. The social media company said in a blog that these videos distort reality and present a ‘significant challenge’ for the technology industry. While deepfakes are still relatively uncommon on the internet, they are becoming more prevalent. AI software creates deepfakes of people – often politicians or celebrities – by merging, replacing, or superimposing content onto a video in a way that makes it look real. Facebook said it would remove videos if it realized they had been edited in ways that weren’t obvious to an average person, or if they misled a viewer into thinking that a person in a video said words they did not actually say. ‘There are people who engage in media manipulation in order to mislead,’ wrote Monika Bickert, vice president of global policy management at Facebook in the blog. Facebook staff and independent fact-checkers will be used to judge a video’s authenticity. The new policy will not apply to parody or satire videos.
- https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/11/facebook-will-not-remove-deepfakes-of-mark-zuckerberg-kim-kardashian-and-others-from-instagram/ – Facebook will not remove the faked videos featuring Mark Zuckerberg, Kim Kardashian, and President Donald Trump from Instagram, the company said in a statement. Earlier today, Vice News reported on the existence of videos created by the artists Bill Posters and Daniel Howe and video and audio manipulation companies including CannyAI, Respeecher, and Reflect. The work, featured in a site-specific installation in the UK as well as circulating in video online, was the first test of Facebook’s content review policies since the company’s decision not to remove a manipulated video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi received withering criticism from Democratic political leadership. ‘We have said all along, poor Facebook, they were unwittingly exploited by the Russians,’ Pelosi said in an interview with radio station KQED, quoted by The New York Times. ‘I think they have proven — by not taking down something they know is false — that they were willing enablers of the Russian interference in our election.’ After the late May incident, Facebook’s Neil Potts testified before a smorgasbord of international regulators in Ottawa about deep fakes, saying the company would not remove a video of Mark Zuckerberg.
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/12/mark-zuckerberg-deepfake-facebook-instagram-nancy-pelosi/ – A couple of short video clips, a voice actor, and an artificial intelligence algorithm. That’s all two artists and a technology start-up needed to produce a video of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg bragging about abusing ‘stolen data’ from users — and now it’s testing the social media platform’s policies on how it manages the spread of fake content and misinformation online. The ‘deepfake,’ a term used to describe sophisticated computer-altered videos, was uploaded to Instagram and appears to show Zuckerberg delivering an ominous message in a segment from CBS News’s streaming channel about the power he and Facebook wield. The doctored clip, which was posted last week, also features news graphics bearing the CBS logo. ‘Imagine this for a second: one man with total control of billions of people’s stolen data,’ the image of Zuckerberg says. On Tuesday, it appeared that the company was staying true to its word. ‘We will treat this content the same way we treat all misinformation on Instagram,’ a spokesman told The Post in a statement late Tuesday. ‘If third-party fact-checkers mark it as false, we will filter it from Instagram’s recommendation surfaces like Explore and hashtag pages.’ The Zuckerberg video, which as of early Wednesday had been viewed more than 23,000 times, will not be removed from Posters’s Instagram account. In the video’s caption, Posters notes that it was made using video dialogue replacement technology created by Canny AI, a Tel Aviv-based company. However, a CBS spokesman told The Post that the network has asked Facebook to take the video down, citing a ‘fake, unauthorized use of the CBSN trademark.’ The short video, which begins with Zuckerberg staring intently into the camera, is, in reality, just 21 seconds taken from a much longer 2017 video of the Facebook chief addressing Russian interference in the 2016 election. The words that appear to be coming out of his mouth were actually spoken by a voice actor reading from a script provided by Posters and another artist, Daniel Howe. The Zuckerberg ‘deepfake’ is part of an exhibition called ‘Spectre,’ which uses the edited videos of well-known figures such as President Trump, Kim Kardashian, and Morgan Freeman to ‘demonstrate the power of computational propaganda.’ The installation was featured this month at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, a documentary film festival in the United Kingdom. Posters told The Post that he and Howe started working on ‘Spectre’ after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed that the British data firm had improperly collected and used Facebook users’ information. ‘We’ve used deepfake technology as a way of narrative storytelling to engage audiences in some of the tensions that exist, like a cautionary tale of technology and democracy,’ Posters said. He described the people featured in the installation as ‘deepfake avatars,’ who ‘touch on alternative truths.’
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-facebook-sexualized-ai-deepfake-celebrity-images-spread/ – Meta has removed over a dozen fraudulent, sexualized images of famous female actors and athletes after a CBS News investigation found a high prevalence of AI-manipulated deepfake images on the company’s Facebook platform. Dozens of fake, highly sexualized images of the actors Miranda Cosgrove, Jennette McCurdy, Ariana Grande, Scarlett Johansson, and former tennis star Maria Sharapova have been shared widely by multiple Facebook accounts, garnering hundreds of thousands of likes and many reshares on the platform. The Oversight Board has made clear that non-consensual deepfake intimate images are a serious violation of privacy and personal dignity, disproportionately harming women and girls. These images are not just a misuse of technology — they are a form of abuse that can have lasting consequences.
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51018758 – Facebook has announced it will remove videos modified by artificial intelligence, known as deepfakes, from its platform. Deepfakes are computer-generated clips that are designed to look real. The social media company said in a blog that these videos distort reality and present a ‘significant challenge’ for the technology industry. While deepfakes are still relatively uncommon on the internet, they are becoming more prevalent. AI software creates deepfakes of people – often politicians or celebrities – by merging, replacing, or superimposing content onto a video in a way that makes it look real. Facebook said it would remove videos if it realized they had been edited in ways that weren’t obvious to an average person, or if they misled a viewer into thinking that a person in a video said words they did not actually say. ‘There are people who engage in media manipulation in order to mislead,’ wrote Monika Bickert, vice president of global policy management at Facebook in the blog. Facebook staff and independent fact-checkers will be used to judge a video’s authenticity. The new policy will not apply to parody or satire videos.
Noah Fact Check Pro
The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first
emerged. We’ve since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed
below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may
warrant further investigation.
Freshness check
Score:
9
Notes:
The narrative appears to be recent, focusing on current events and concerns about AI-generated deepfakes. There is no indication that the information is outdated or recycled from older articles.
Quotes check
Score:
8
Notes:
Although direct quotes from Jamie Lee Curtis are mentioned, they are not explicitly stated in the narrative. The original source of the quotes seems to be her Instagram post, which is not directly linked or referenced.
Source reliability
Score:
6
Notes:
The narrative originates from Tech Times, which is not as widely recognized for its fact-checking standards as major news outlets like the Financial Times or BBC. However, it is not known for disseminating misinformation.
Plausability check
Score:
8
Notes:
The concerns about deepfakes and their misuse on social media platforms are well-documented and plausible. Jamie Lee Curtis’s public appeal aligns with broader societal worries about AI-generated content.
Overall assessment
Verdict (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): OPEN
Confidence (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): MEDIUM
Summary:
The narrative is recent and plausible, but lacks specific details like direct quotes or references to credible sources that could enhance its credibility. The source is not among the most reputable, which affects the overall confidence in the report.
