The Financial Times released a statement on 25 th April saying it is aware of deepfake videos falsely purporting to feature Martin Wolf, the FT's chief economics commentator, circulating on Facebook and Instagram. The statement said:
These fraudulent posts attempt to mislead users by promoting WhatsApp groups offering so-called “investment” advice — something Martin Wolf would never do.
Martin Wolf has written about this in the FT today: Playing ‘whack-a-mole’ with Meta over my fraudulent avatars. The column will also be published in the print FT Weekend tomorrow, 26 April.
If you have been the victim of this scam or have seen something that appears to be suspicious, please share your experience with the FT at visual.investigations@ft.com .
The FT takes this matter extremely seriously. We are actively working to ensure that Meta removes these posts and to safeguard the integrity of our journalists and reputation.
If you believe you've seen a deepfake on social media:
- You can report it directly through the relevant platform's built-in reporting tools
- Inform the affected individual or organisation
- If you think you have been the victim of a scam, in the UK you can report it to Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime. Those elsewhere may report it to relevant authorities in their own country.
Keep up-to-date with publishing news: sign up here for InPubWeekly, our free weekly e-newsletter.
