In April, users claiming to be nieces of Marine Le Pen posted videos on TikTok promoting her far-right National Rally party. But Amandine and Lena Marechal are not real. These purported nieces of the far-right politician were deepfakes, or manipulated videos, as was quickly reported in the French media and on the social media platform.
The makers of the videos used artificial intelligence (AI) to superimpose pictures of the faces of Marine Le Pen and her actual niece, Marion Marechal, onto images of other people. This created the illusion of younger family members, who could then proclaim to be 'proud to be French' and admire their 'aunt.'
According to French media reports, the account @amandineeette had over 32,000 followers. It has since been deleted just like the account @lena.marechal.lepen. It seems the two accounts were created to make the far-right appear more appealing to a younger audience ahead of the upcoming European elections.
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