Digital blackface flourishes under Trump and AI: ‘The state is bending reality’

AI-generated deepfakes (fake videos created using artificial intelligence to realistically impersonate people) depicting Black women in negative stereotypes are spreading widely on social media and being shared by news outlets and public figures, sometimes without clear disclosure or verification. These videos perpetuate racist stereotypes and cause real harm to Black users, even when they carry watermarks indicating they are AI-generated, because viewers and media outlets treat them as authentic.