Meta Ordered to Remove Deepfake of Scottish Councillor as Oversight Board Calls AI Rules Inadequate
Key Takeaways
- •Meta's Oversight Board ordered the removal of an AI-generated video that used a Scottish Labour councillor's likeness to falsely depict her endorsing sexual violence by refugees, overturning the company's initial decision to leave it online.
- •A majority of the Board found the clip breached Meta's Hateful Conduct policy for accusing refugees as an entire group of serious criminality, while agreeing that bullying and harassment rules did not require removal because the councillor is a public figure.
- •The video stayed accessible through two user reports and appeals without ever reaching a human reviewer, and Meta also declined to attach an AI label to it.
- •Following its two rulings, the Board called Meta's safeguards inadequate and recommended expanded high-risk AI labeling, demonetization or demotion of such content, and priority human review of reported AI material, with Meta having 60 days to respond.
- •The decisions arrive amid a global tightening on synthetic media, including China's new liability rules, the EU's AI content transparency code, and platform policies such as Google Play's prohibition on non-consensual deepfakes.
Meta's Oversight Board has ordered the company to take down an AI-generated video that used the likeness of a Scottish Labour councillor to falsely depict her endorsing sexual violence by refugees. Meta had initially decided to leave the clip online, and beyond overturning that decision, the Board warned that the company's handling of deepfakes puts users at risk of deception.
The Board, an independent panel Meta set up in 2020 to review the company's content moderation decisions, announced its decision in a statement, which centers on a clip that surfaced on Facebook in November 2025. The video showed a local Labour Party politician in Scotland appearing to say: "Refugees are welcome here, even if they rape our women, because white people do that too."
The Board described the portrayal as realistic but synthetic, noting that the audio did not align with the councillor's facial movements. The clip appeared in an album that also contained a photograph of several named women, including the councillor, at an anti-far-right protest.
Two users, one of them the councillor herself, reported the video under Meta's bullying and harassment rules, but the company's systems never routed it to a human reviewer, and it stayed up through two appeals. A third user then took the case to the Board. Even after that escalation, Meta maintained that the video broke no rules and did not warrant an AI label. The councillor told the Board the video was "quite traumatic."
A majority of the Board found that the clip violated Meta's Hateful Conduct policy because it accused refugees as a whole group of serious criminality and predatory sexual behavior, rejecting Meta's claim that it targeted only some refugees. The Board did not treat the video as removable misinformation, but said it should have carried a "High Risk AI" label.
The Board did agree with Meta on one point: the bullying and harassment rules did not require removal, because an elected official is a public figure entitled to less protection than a private person.
Second case and recommendations
The Board also intervened in a second case involving an AI-manipulated interview of a woman promoting menstrual health education. Following the Board's intervention, Meta pulled that video for bullying. The Board has separately issued policy advice calling on platforms to identify and label AI-manipulated audio and video at scale.
Taken together, the two rulings prompted the Board to call Meta's safeguards "consistently and fundamentally inadequate."
The Board recommended that Meta lower the threshold for "high risk" labels so they are not reserved for elections or crises, and replace some labels with a click-through interstitial. It also suggested that high-risk AI content be demonetized, demoted, or removed from recommendations, with escalating penalties for repeat sharers.
The Board further wants Meta to prioritize suspected AI content for human review when reported, publish annual data on how often it applies AI labels, including to posts about politicians, and phrase its voting and census rules to apply globally rather than only in the United States. Meta has 60 days to respond to the Board. The Board's ruling on the video itself binds the company, but its broader policy recommendations require only a response, leaving Meta to decide which of the proposed changes to adopt.
Global tightening on synthetic media
The rulings land as governments and platforms worldwide tighten their rules on synthetic media, a parallel push that is pressing companies to identify and label manipulated audio and video at scale. China's Supreme People's Court set liability rules on September 7 stating that creating or sharing an AI replica of someone's face or voice without permission is an infringement. Cryptopolitan reported that Beijing separately removed more than 14,000 AI products in the first phase of its "Qinglang" cleanup earlier this year.
The European Union's Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-generated Content pushes providers to mark AI output and deployers to labelfakes.
Google Play's AI-Generated Content policy prohibits users from posting non-consensual deepfake sexual material and election content that is "demonstrably deceptive or false."
Only a few users are allowed to use AI in writing undisclosed on Medium, and the platform forbids AI-generated disinformation outright.
