This YouTuber promotes One Nation to thousands in an Aussie accent.
asserted
YouTuber → promote → accent
He's a foreigner we traced to the other side of the world
In short:
An ABC NEWS Verify investigation has uncovered a YouTube political commentator from overseas who is using AI to fake an Australian accent and promote One Nation to tens of thousands of people.
The account, Oceania Unfiltered, has accrued more than 3 million views and receives thousands of comments on its Australian and New Zealand political commentary.
asserted
account → trace → commentary
The investigation also uncovered groups and pages sharing tips on generating social media content for profit, with one describing Australia as an untapped market.
asserted
one → uncover → market
Grab a cold one if you've got it, because we need to have a serious yarn about what's been going on down in Canberra this week."
asserted
what → grab → Canberra
This YouTuber seems very Australian.
asserted
YouTuber → seem → ?
He often presents from a room with coloured lights, using colloquial language and slang to speak almost exclusively about one topic — Australian politics.
asserted
He → present → topic
"Aussies cannot just sit back, have a whinge at the pub over a beer, and hope she'll be right," he says in a different video.
asserted
he → sit → video
He frequently promotes One Nation and its leader Pauline Hanson and is critical of Anthony Albanese.
asserted
He → promote → Albanese
He rails against the "uni-party" and the "political establishment".
asserted
He → rail → uni
A spokesman for One Nation said the channel and its creator is not associated with the party.
asserted
channel → say → party
The channel has received thousands of comments across his videos from seemingly real Australians engaging with his content.
asserted
channel → receive → content
He appears to be a man ABC NEWS Verify has traced to the other side of the world.
asserted
Verify → appear → world
And artificial intelligence has been used to give this channel its distinct Australian voice.
asserted
intelligence → use → voice
Signs of AI
The channel is called Oceania Unfiltered and claims to deliver, "sharp, independent analysis on the political, economic and cultural issues shaping Australia and New Zealand".
uncertain
channel → call → Australia
The earliest video about Australian politics was posted in February and the channel has accrued more than 3 million views across dozens of videos.
asserted
channel → post → videos
The presenter appears to be a Brazilian man, named Junior Lutero De Alcantara, sometimes shortened to Junior Lutero.
asserted
presenter → appear → Lutero
His commentary is often spliced between real Australian news clips.
asserted
commentary → splice → clips
He appears on several YouTube channels — mostly speaking in Brazil's official language Portuguese — discussing everything from world politics to aliens to conspiracy theories.
asserted
He → appear → theories
On a second YouTube channel appearing to feature Junior Lutero, older videos are presented in Portuguese before suddenly pivoting to a thick North American accent in newer videos.
asserted
videos → appear → videos
Many of these are critical of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and praise US President Donald Trump.
asserted
Many → praise → Trump
It is unclear whether the real Junior Lutero is running all these accounts, including Oceania Unfiltered, or if someone else is using his likeness.
uncertain
someone → run → likeness
ABC NEWS Verify attempted to contact Junior Lutero numerous times but received no reply.
asserted
Verify → attempt → reply
We also engaged a Brazilian producer to try and contact him — they also received no reply.
asserted
they → engage → reply
A day after our first attempt to contact him in May, warnings started appearing on some videos which read, "Made with AI.
Sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated".
uncertain
Sounds → contact → AI
These could be seen after expanding the video caption box.
uncertain
These → see → box
After ABC NEWS Verify sent questions to YouTube, all videos on the channel had the AI warning placed in the caption box.
asserted
warning → send → box
Another small AI label was also placed below the video title where it could be viewed without clicking.
uncertain
it → place → title
"All content uploaded to YouTube is subject to our policies, which we enforce consistently for all creators on our platform, regardless of whether their content is generated using artificial intelligence," a spokesperson for YouTube said in a statement.
"
asserted
spokesperson → upload → statement
YouTube also requires creators to disclose when they upload photorealistic or meaningfully altered and synthetic content, and we display clear disclosure labels to provide viewers with context at a glance.
asserted
we → require → glance
We also asked experts in AI detection to look at the Oceania Unfiltered content, with one video from September 1 singled out for deeper investigation.
asserted
video → ask → investigation
"The video is a lip-sync deepfake," said the University at Buffalo's Media Forensic Lab.
asserted
Lab → say → Buffalo
"AI-generated speech lip-synced onto real footage of a person, with synthetic audio and visuals manipulated to match it," the analysis by Siwei Lyu, Jialing Cai, and Regina Chen stated.
asserted
analysis → generate → Lyu
The experts found unnatural changes around the eye of the presenter and found one of his moles disappeared.
asserted
one → find → moles
In an older video they found "unstable boundaries and texture flicker".
asserted
they → find → boundaries
Put simply, AI has been used to manipulate Junior Lutero's face and voice.
asserted
AI → Put → face
ABC NEWS Verify found a 2021 video where Junior Lutero speaks in English with a Latin American accent.
asserted
Lutero → find → accent
The clip sees the content creator asking Facebook to review a decision that restricted the monetisation on his page and does not show signs of AI-manipulation.
asserted
that → see → manipulation
The real Junior Lutero has filmed several of his videos in a town in Brazil's São Paulo state.
asserted
Lutero → film → state
ABC NEWS Verify has chosen not to name the town.
asserted
Verify → choose → town
The town was identified using landmarks in the backgrounds in three videos on other channels, which don't appear to show signs of AI manipulation.
asserted
which → identify → manipulation
…and 44 more, not listed.
The Aporia