A spoof video of departed AFL coaches Brad Scott and Michael Voss letting their hair down in Ibiza might appear harmless, but it offers insight into the growing danger and proliferation of “fake news” and its impact on AFL clubs, players and their families.
Seemingly innocent or light-hearted footage of the former Brisbane Lions premiership teammates finding their dancing feet, unburdened by the stress of coaching, generates a laugh and maybe even sympathy from a social media audience that’s happy to see them smiling. But here’s the catch: the footage isn’t real.
It’s increasingly easy to be confused or misled in cyberspace. Often derided as “AI Slop”, this questionable content is featuring increasingly on Facebook feeds. And it’s often the game’s big names, usually with fanciful and wild claims attached to them, being used to pull you in.
Have you read about Nick Daicos spending $2 million on a homeless shelter? Or stumbled across reports that a star player was involved in a stoush with Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong on live TV? Maybe you just keep scrolling and simply shake your head. Not everyone does. Based on an assessment of Facebook reader comments, footy fans are constantly being hoodwinked as the practice goes into overdrive.
One Facebook page spread the news that former Footscray ruckman Gary Dempsey had died. Thankfully, the 77-year-old took the news in his stride.
“I am still driving tractors, chasing cattle and cutting down trees, so I am still alive,” he told News Corp last month. “A lot of people haven’t got my number, so people rang relatives, and they got upset, but it was all bullshit, to be honest. It has been lovely that a lot of people rang.”
AFL clubs and staff are getting more and more frustrated by the proliferation of misinformation in the form of fake player and club pages and other information purporting to come from official sources.
“This sort of material has caused significant concern recently given the false and sometimes disturbing nature of the content, particularly when relatives of our people are brought into it and provocative allegations are made about individuals, their opinions or interpersonal relationships,” a spokesperson for the Western Bulldogs said.
Prominent off-field club personnel were also in the scammers’ sights, the spokesperson said. The Bulldogs confirmed a club legend had been in contact to “assure us he was fine after it [his alleged passing] was brought to his attention”.
“This is clearly unacceptable and potentially the source of enormous distress,” the spokesperson said.
This masthead has spoken to multiple clubs, and the AFL, about the growing problem. One club needed 15 staff to report dubious content to Meta (the owner of Facebook) before the page was taken down.
Usually, reporting a problem page becomes a game of Whack-A-Mole. A club successfully shuts down a questionable social media page before it springs up again – sometimes with the same name – to continue publishing false material.
Meta says it’s aware of “inauthentic behaviour” – “IB” for short – described as the effort to mislead people or Facebook about the popularity of content, the purpose of a community (groups, pages and events) or the identity of the people behind it. Meta says such behaviour is mainly focused on amplifying and increasing the distribution of content. It also says it uses automated systems and manual enforcement to combat IB.
The deliberately personal nature of the content is of particular concern to AFL figures.
“Any false information about the club that is disseminated purporting to be ‘news’ is concerning,” the Bulldogs say. “But there’s been examples of posts that mention and contain imagery of relatives of club representatives with potentially upsetting narratives that are entirely false, such as serious illness.”
What’s being published?
The stories are designed to shock and capture your attention: issues affecting the LGBTQI+ community, sports stars struck down by major illnesses, confected conflict between coaches and players, crazy accusations supposedly made by a coach about an upcoming opponent, and even players calling for a result to be overturned after a controversial finish to a match.
At Collingwood, Nick Daicos and Darcy Moore are favourite subjects. Hawthorn’s James Sicily is a popular pick. Richmond champion and three-time Norm Smith winner Dustin Martin is regularly in the (fake) headlines.
“Dustin Martin touched the hearts of the entire AFL by quietly sponsoring a life-saving surgery to separate conjoined twins and give them a second chance,” read a recent post from a page passing itself off as connected to the Tigers. “This extraordinary and compassionate act resonated deeply with fans worldwide, who joined in prayer and shared the children’s grief.”
The individuals behind this post did something the mainstream media has struggled with – eliciting a comment from the notoriously shy Martin.
“I did this simply so they could have a chance to fight and live their lives,” says one fake quote attributed to Martin.
A page connecting itself to Brisbane made the damaging assertion that Lions players had set up a charity fund for Kumanjayi Little Baby, who was found dead after going missing from a town camp in Alice Springs this year.
A fact-checking unit run by Australian Associated Press, this country’s predominant newswire, found the report had no foundation.
“The claim that players have set up a charity fund … is one of numerous falsehoods published by a Facebook page [attempting to connect itself to the club],” AAP FactCheck said.
The two-time reigning premiers have had to negotiate false claims made on social media for most of the year. Brisbane took the step of reminding their fans to be vigilant and judicious on social media platforms.
“Good morning Lions fans!” the club posted on Facebook on April 30. “We just wanted to bring to your attention a number of fake/AI Facebook pages that are posted (sic) fake stories regarding our players. Please stay vigilant online to misinformation – some of these stories are regarding real news events and falsely involving our playing group, and also impacting the lives of the players families.
“This is harmful and it’s important to stay aware of what you read. If you’re unsure about something, always feel free to reach out to us for confirmation or information.”
The ability of random pages (via the posts they propagate) also infuriates AFL “content creators” – fans who curate content to develop audiences.
Chris Michaels, a podcaster involved in the BigFooty Tigercast, says he’s aware of a Richmond page trying to pass itself off as a genuine fan site. What they were putting out “left a little bit to be desired”, Michaels said.
“It’s quite literally all AI-generated. I’m like ‘how has that not been shut down yet?’ It’s just embarrassing.
“What is scary is the amount of replies and comments on posts on that page that are actually believing what’s being written.
“I can only imagine from a club perspective … how they must feel about some of the stuff that’s being spread that people are believing about their players and the club.
“It’s just not a healthy thing. It’s very toxic.
“You just shake your head when you see it because for every page that’s posting rubbish that’s all made up, there’s so many other good fan pages out there that are putting out really good information to keep supporters actually informed … [and] not trying to harm people.”
What and who is behind it? And what are the motives?
Facebook pages with large followings or significant engagement can be rewarded through Meta’s monetisation program, which pays the creators of the content for ads to appear beside their posts and within videos. Meta does not openly share the eligibility requirements for monetisation. This masthead is unable to verify if the pages discussed are enrolled in the program. Those details are not publicly available.
AAP has a dedicated fact-checking unit. They’ve been busy keeping up with dodgy AFL posts, along with attempts to produce similar fake NRL content.
AAP Face Check frequently publishes its findings. On May 29, AAP concluded about one post affecting the Sydney Swans: “Transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey has not publicly ridiculed Sydney Swans star Isaac Heeney on television.
“This claim is just one of numerous falsehoods published by a Facebook page called Red Zone Footy. The supposed AFL club fan page is operated by users in Vietnam, according to Facebook’s transparency details, and is pushing out disinformation on a daily basis.”
The fact-checking unit’s editor, Ben James, told AAP that it appeared the overseas-based operation would not be possible without AI tools.
“These operators in Vietnam likely know very little about the players, teams or local issues they are posting about,” James said. “Just a few years ago this would have been impossible to pull off.
“Today, AI allows them to identify emotionally charged topics and quickly produce convincing content tailored to Australian footy fans.
“Social media is being inundated with these fabricated posts and many fans are struggling to tell fact from fiction.”
What is being done? Where do we go from here?
Investigations into questionable sport content and its origins are ongoing. Meta says it fights misinformation in a number of ways, including removing it when independent experts assess it as false, and when the content could contribute to imminent physical harm.
The company also says when its fact-checking partners – AAP and Agence France-Presse are the operators in Australia – rate a piece of content as false, Meta reduces its distribution so that fewer people see it, and a note is attached, so users can read additional context.
Sport is not alone in being hit by wild misinformation, and Australian sports clubs are not the only sporting bodies and franchises affected.
In the US, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle fell victim to fake quotes being attributed to athletes. One quote – about Charlie Kirk, the prominent conservative activist who was fatally shot in Utah last September – went viral.
“I love football because it unites people,” his fake quote stated last year. “But lately, I’ve seen politics being dragged into it far too often. Charlie Kirk may matter to some, but he has no place in the NFL. Football is for the fans, the competition, and the love of the game — not for politics.”
Kittle released a statement online to calm people down. “Couple of things … this is a fake quote,” he said. “I hope most of you realise that.
“Also, that above account only posts fake news/reports, please ignore them. The wild messages I’m receiving from people made me have to address it. Have a good night.”
Sport, politics, entertainment and all other sections of society can be susceptible to dodgy online practices – from deep fakes, to scams and everything in between.
“The capacity to generate websites and other types of content is accelerated by AI,” says Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea. “There’s certain ways in which malicious actors even working on an individual level can end up having a greater influence than what might have been available [even compared with] two years ago.
“The lack of human moderation on huge sections of internet activity on social media platforms – from advertising all the way through to management of groups – this is not a new thing.
“There’s also a question of ‘do we get our regulators to do more [and] what pathways are there for people who’ve got complaints?’”
O’Shea says both government regulation and “trusted authorities” can play a role in combating misinformation. Taking the fight up to global behemoths, such as Meta (the owners of Facebook), can understandably be difficult, she says.
“They definitely have a business model that operates on low levels of human intervention, at the cost of everybody else,” she says.
“In the absence of a regulator doing stuff … depending on the scale of harm because the regulator deals with these things a lot, the other issue is: does the code [the AFL] have an obligation to take proactive steps … that assists fans to make better decisions about where they spend their time, or what they might spend their money on?
“It doesn’t have to just be regulators that do that work. It can also be trusted authorities.”
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