Reuters reported on December 16 that Meta made over $18 billion from its China ad business last year, more than $3 billion of it from scams, illegal gambling, porn and other banned ads. Internal documents cited by Reuters show a China anti-fraud team was disbanded after Zuckerberg intervened; spokesman Andy Stone said the team was meant to be temporary.
Speaking in Marseille on Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron said an African counterpart had messaged him in alarm over a video claiming a colonel had seized power in France. The video drew "twelve million views", Macron said, yet Facebook, alerted via the Pharos reporting platform, replied that it did not breach its rules. "It doesn't work," he observed.
Matthan Lough, 32, a teacher and volleyball coach, was arrested on Dec. 10 on a third-degree felony charge of child grooming, accused of grooming a teenage girl. According to police and the arrest affidavit, detectives found an AI-generated document on his iPad titled "Hypothetical Counter-Influence Plan", outlining phases such as "rebuild her autonomy" and "shift the power dynamic".
Released bodycam footage shows Reno officer R. Jager relying on the Peppermill Casino's AI facial recognition "100% facial match" to detain a truck driver four inches taller than the banned man. "So the software's saying it, it's legit," Jager says. The driver's lawsuit alleges Jager falsified reports to "manufacture probable cause" for an 11-hour detention in September 2023; a fingerprint check cleared him.
Who did it: HYBRID AI Hallucination Cases database
Judge Jesse M. Furman of the Southern District of New York imposed sanctions on the plaintiff's counsel in McMillian v. Zimmer US after counsel conceded sanctions were warranted for filing papers with "AI-generated hallucinations and inaccuracies" on December 4, 2025. Counsel must reimburse the defendants' resulting fees and costs; the parties are to confer on the amount.
Ada County Sheriff's Office detectives arrested 19-year-old Tyler Cox on Dec. 16, 2025, for possession of sexually exploitive material and visual representations of child sexual abuse, involving both real child victims and AI-generated images. It is the office's first case charged under Idaho's 2024 law covering AI-generated depictions even when no real child is involved.
BBC Verify says an AI-generated image appearing to show a Bondi Beach shooting victim having fake blood applied on what looks like a film set has been used to claim the attack was staged, including in posts seen more than 10 million times. Giveaways include a scrambled T-shirt logo, jeans where he wore shorts, and crew members' deformed hands.
Users of a social platform spotted near-identical renovation testimonials set in Wuhan, Shanghai and Xi'an, several featuring the same young couple, strongly suspected to be AI-generated, and steering readers to private messages about a renovation firm. The posts carried no AI labels. The platform's customer service said it is strengthening detection of AI-generated content and will act on reports.
