Do real photos show celebrities like Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan, and Barry Manilow posed in front of their $80 million private jets? No, that’s not true: A network of fake fan pages are publishing nearly identical copy/paste clickbait stories. The posts have AI-generated images of the celebrities posed with private jets. While some celebrities do own private jets, the made up controversies and the accompanying photos are not real.
Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0E4LKK1Q6EA3EE8dWnsdyWP4kJSz1yCEbd4Te7sWSrJ4vh4pYEgUJ76PgxmP2mu71l&id=61580863392964.
The Facebook page transparency report (archived here) for Mystical Rhythms (pictured below) shows the fan page has managers based in Vietnam.
Image source: Screenshot from Facebook.
The Vietnam connection is significant, since fact-checkers, including Lead Stories, have identified a major source of AI-generated false stories coming from a single operation based in that Southeast Asian country. You can see recent reporting and fact checks mentioning that country here.
A Google News search for news articles mentioning “Stevie Nicks” “$80 million private jet” did not produce any results (archived here).
Lead Stories searched Facebook for the phrases, “$80 million private jet” “Internet can’t process it”. The search results returned many duplicate versions of this story which were posted by fake fan pages made to attract the fan base of the respective celebrities. In many instances the AI-generated private jet pictured was not even unique, but had different name decals as it was recycled behind AI-generated images of the different celebrities. The Lead Stories GIF (below) shows some of the Facebook search results:
Image source: animation of Facebook search results for the phrase “$80 million private jet” “Internet can’t process it”.
Lead Stories found posts involving:
Lead Stories has published a primer — or a prebunk — on how to identify these kinds of fake posts exported from Vietnam. It’s titled “Prebunk: Beware Of Fake Fan Pages Spreading False Stories About Your Favorite Celebrities — How To Spot ‘Viet Spam'”.