Well, that's a tad disturbing

[davidgillon]

 I was watching some youtube gaming stuff earlier.

First off  the ad YT serverd up at the start of the video appears to be some sort of deep-fake video of Elon Musk shilling for some trading app no one's heard of  - it may well have started with a genuine video of Space Karen, but the pacing of the words seems deep in uncanny valley (though the lip-syncing matches), it doesn't sound like Musk's phrasing, and I don't see Musk being happy with an app he appears to claim 'closes 96.3% of trades' (as if that was somehow impressive). Second YT ad this week that's struck me that way, though I forget what the other was.




Then there's the persistent text 'ad' that appears at the head of the list of other vids you might like (i.e top right on the standard YT layout). It's phrased as a "Poll on inclusion in Britain", and asks if inclusion should be prioritised over religious belief, illustrated with a picture of two women hugging. It's tagged as from 'The Epoch Times', I googled The Epoch Times the other day, figuring it would be some far right political group, or Suella Braverman (same thing, really), but it turns out to be Falun Gong. I estimate I'm getting this ad or a variation roughly every three or four vids, all challenging equality, and that's been true for at least the last two months, if not three or four. That's a substantial advertising spend, for a subject apparently unrelated to the group's aims*, and apparently aimed at a youth audience. If they're going after equality in Britain this way, god knows what they'll be like in the US where they're a Trump backer to the point it got them banned from Facebook.

* Though the Wiki article notes the German arm of Epoch Times is aligned with AfD on anti-immigration policies and that the founder of Falun Gong is a racist, so maybe it's a more general representation of their beliefs.

Comments

[davidgillon]

Second YT ad this week that's struck me that way, though I forget what the other was.

Caught the second one again and it's not a deepfake, it's just Joseph Fiennes looking startlingly like Gareth Southgate, but not getting the voice quite right when playing him in Dear England.