Fake security analyst peddles Hunter Biden intelligence document
A fake 64-page report attempting to smear President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden by asserting a conspiracy theory involving his business dealings in China prompted right-wing US politicians and commentators to accuse Biden of corruption. President Biden was also accused of being too soft on the Chinese Communist Party. According to disinformation researchers and commenta tors , the report appeared to be the work of 'Martin Aspen', a fake Swiss security analyst whose profile picture had been created with an AI face generator. Aspen reputedly worked for Typhoon Investigations, a fake 'intelligence firm'. The report was published on Intelligence Quarterly , an anonymous blog, by Fulbright University Vietnam professor Christopher Balding . Balding later admitted that Aspen was 'an entirely fictional individual' and that he had 'authored small parts of the report'. He also said the report had been commissioned by Hong Kong tabloid A pple Daily, a claim that was later denied by the newspaper. System 🤖 Unknown Operator: Intelligence Quarterly Developer: Apple Daily; Christopher Balding Country: USA Sector: Politics Purpose: Sow distrust Technology: Deepfake - video; Generative adversarial network (GAN); Neural network; Deep learning; Machine learning Issue: Mis/disinformation; Ethics/values; Trans parency
- Date it happened
- 2020-11-01
- Organisation involved
- Intelligence Quarterly
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