9 minutes
The similarities between the Instagram profile Eli Hosteler (@ eli.hosteler ), which describes itself as an "Amish herbalist" living in the United States, and that of Ernesto Salute (@ernestosalute), who claims to live in the Italian region of Trentino, or with the monk Fray Lorenzo (@fraylorenzoreflexiones), are greater than the differences. All of these profiles were generated using artificial intelligence (AI), most were created during 2026, their descriptions share the same structure, and almost all of them aim to sell you something, usually supplements or books and guides that also appear to have been written by AI.These characteristics, among many others, are evidence of coordination and the use of similar templates, which allow them to create profiles en masse and through which 250 accounts analyzed by Maldita.es have been replicated. The objective, according to cybersecurity expert and Maldita.es contributor Daniel Fernández-Viagas, who has lent us his expertise, is to test niches and make money selling supplements and guides .Almost 77% of accounts were created in 2026An analysis of the 250 accounts we monitored shows that 192 were created between January and June 2026, indicating that the network began actively operating during that period. March and April saw the highest number of new Instagram accounts created, with an average of 48 new profiles each month.<img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29804921/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" /> "><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29804921/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" /> Although some accounts were created in previous years, the first videos available on those profiles are recent. For example, the first posts on the five accounts created in 2022 were made between 2025 and 2026. Some of the initial videos cover topics completely unrelated to what they publish now . For instance, the first videos, published in February 2025, on the Jae Kim Skin account, created in 2022, are about parents and newborns. Now, this profile is a supposed expert in facial care and doesn't post anything about parents and babies, clear evidence that, as Daniel Fernández-Viagas explained, they are testing niches.Another indication that this operation has only recently begun is that 131 of the 250 accounts analyzed by Maldita.es have undergone at least one name change. In fact, some, like Herbalance Lab, have accumulated up to 11 name changes since their creation in 2022, even though their first visible video was published on January 1, 2026.Name changes for the accounts @herbalance_lab, @marjorieholistics, and @voxayomiOn the other hand, we found that more than half of the accounts, 57.4%, follow other accounts within the network. For example, Paulina Secretos Salud follows Amish Folk Remedies, Grandma June, Holistic Chen, and Mother Juba, among others. Mother Juba, in turn, follows Shaman Glenroy , a profile of a supposed shaman, who in turn follows Dr. Miriam Beiler , who describes herself as a "Doctor of Traditional American Medicine" and sells yerba mate energy drinks. And so on.Paulina Secretos Salud's account follows Mother Juba, who in turn follows Shaman Glenroy, who follows Miriam Beiler. Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE "> Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE Chen monks and other profiles that share similar patternsFurther evidence of coordination among these accounts lies in the names they choose for these AI-generated characters, which are often very similar with only slight variations. For example, 12 accounts include the word "wellness" in their username: WellnessMaddie, wellnesswithjacob1, and Mayalin_wellness; three use the word "abuela" (grandmother) in Spanish: " abuela_lopez7," "Abuela.Remedies," and "Abuela Rosa"; and one uses the English word " grandmatruth" or the masculine form "Granddad Roy." Another 14 use "health" or "healthy"; five contain "herbal," and another five "holistic," among others.Sample profiles that have the word "health", "wellness" or "grandmother" in their name or handle.Many profiles not only have nearly identical names or characters, but they also use the same profile picture and the same names, one in Spanish and the other in English. This is the case with two accounts of monks named Chen (@monch_chen and @monjechen). It's a name they use consistently. We found six accounts with the name Chen: “@ chenwei.sante”, “Chen Lao (@chen.lao12)”, “Leo Chen (@leo.chenn_)”, “Monch chen (@monch_chen)” , “Mei Lin Chen (@vovomeii)”, and “Monaco Chen (@monacochenn)”, and three accounts using Shen: “Shen Mu (@shenmuhealer)”, “Shen Yu (@monkshen)”, and “Ravi Shen (@oravishen)”.The profiles of Monch Chen and Monje Chen.The elements that appear in the videos are also repeated in these profiles. For example, the American flag is present in many of them. We also observe that the characters regularly appear in front of or inside what appear to be large retail stores like Costco or Walmart. The cybersecurity expert emphasizes that this use of the flag and American-oriented language is due to “demographic and cultural” segmentation aimed at selling products.Sample videos featuring the United States flag or a supermarket chain's logo. ¿Crees que te ha llegado un bulo? Verifica en nuestro chatbot de WhatsApp (+34 644 229 319) "> ¿Crees que te ha llegado un bulo? Verifica en nuestro chatbot de WhatsApp (+34 644 229 319) Same types of profiles, locations, and account descriptionsThe 250 accounts revolve around four main categories of profiles: rural elders, "holistic" practitioners, shamans or Easterners, and religious figures. Looking at their descriptions, almost all share the same structure: three lines of text and a link. "An attempt to project authority, but selling solutions that are unproven, unscientific, or unvalidated," explains Fernández-Viagas.Among the most used words in these profile descriptions are “health”, “wellness”; “years”, “natural”, “holistic” or “wisdom”. <img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805004/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="word-cloud visualization" /> "><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805004/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="word-cloud visualization" /> These words are in English, as 61.2% of these profiles are in that language. Spanish follows with 50 profiles. Regarding the country where Instagram places these accounts, more than half ( 132 out of 250) are in the United States. The rest are located in other countries such as Spain (15), France (19), Brazil (18), the United Kingdom (12), Canada (8), and Germany (8), among others. .lls-tabla-container{ width:100%; margin:20px 0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; } .lls-titulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 8px; font-size:20px; font-weight:700; line-height:1.3; color:#000000 !important; } .lls-subtitulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 18px; font-size:13px !important; line-height:1.5 !important; font-weight:400 !important; color:#555 !important; } .lls-tabla{ width:auto; max-width:650px; border-collapse:collapse; display:inline-table; } .lls-tabla td{ border:1px solid #ddd; padding:12px 14px; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:nth-child(even){ background:#fafafa; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:hover{ background:#f0f7ff; } .lls-pais{ display:flex; align-items:center; gap:12px; } .lls-bandera{ width:24px; height:18px; border:1px solid #ddd; border-radius:2px; flex-shrink:0; } .lls-info{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; width:100%; } .lls-nombre{ font-weight:600; color:#222; margin-bottom:6px; } .lls-cuentas{ width:320px; height:10px; background:#e6e6e6; border-radius:999px; overflow:hidden; } .lls-bar{ height:100%; background:#c13584; border-radius:999px; } .lls-pie{ max-width:650px; margin:12px 0 0; font-size:10px !important; line-height:1.3 !important; color:#666 !important; font-style:italic !important; } More than half of the accounts have their Instagram location in the United States List of countries where the 250* accounts are located, according to information available on Instagram. The length of each bar represents the percentage of profiles located in each country. US France Spain Brazil United Kingdom Germany Canada Italy Australia —No shared Sweden Indonesia *The following countries have been removed from the visualization as they represent less than 1%: Argentina, Portugal, Vietnam, Benin, Belgium, Colombia, United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Luxembourg, Morocco, Montenegro, Myanmar, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia and Thailand. "> .lls-tabla-container{ width:100%; margin:20px 0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; } .lls-titulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 8px; font-size:20px; font-weight:700; line-height:1.3; color:#000000 !important; } .lls-subtitulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 18px; font-size:13px !important; line-height:1.5 !important; font-weight:400 !important; color:#555 !important; } .lls-tabla{ width:auto; max-width:650px; border-collapse:collapse; display:inline-table; } .lls-tabla td{ border:1px solid #ddd; padding:12px 14px; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:nth-child(even){ background:#fafafa; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:hover{ background:#f0f7ff; } .lls-pais{ display:flex; align-items:center; gap:12px; } .lls-bandera{ width:24px; height:18px; border:1px solid #ddd; border-radius:2px; flex-shrink:0; } .lls-info{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; width:100%; } .lls-nombre{ font-weight:600; color:#222; margin-bottom:6px; } .lls-cuentas{ width:320px; height:10px; background:#e6e6e6; border-radius:999px; overflow:hidden; } .lls-bar{ height:100%; background:#c13584; border-radius:999px; } .lls-pie{ max-width:650px; margin:12px 0 0; font-size:10px !important; line-height:1.3 !important; color:#666 !important; font-style:italic !important; } More than half of the accounts have their Instagram location in the United States List of countries where the 250* accounts are located, according to information available on Instagram. The length of each bar represents the percentage of profiles located in each country. US France Spain Brazil United Kingdom Germany Canada Italy Australia —No shared Sweden Indonesia *The following countries have been removed from the visualization as they represent less than 1%: Argentina, Portugal, Vietnam, Benin, Belgium, Colombia, United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Luxembourg, Morocco, Montenegro, Myanmar, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia and Thailand. Furthermore, the profile descriptions are characterised by the use of similar formulas, which consist of four parts:Presentation of the expert or reference: holistic expert, wellness specialist, member of the Amish community, etc.Authority: They tell you why you should trust them with phrases like "Based on ancestral wisdom," "Certified," "More than 10 years of experience," and others.Benefit: what those who follow them would obtain: “health tips”, “wellness secrets”, “longevity”.What you have to do, the call to action : “follow us for daily health tips”, “get my guide”, “link below” and “click here”.Sample of profile descriptions that, as we can see, correspond to the same type of structure.This would indicate that most of the profiles analysed use templates to create these descriptions, substituting some of the variables to avoid being identical. There are “public and commercial collections of prompts and templates optimised for generating scripts ” and short texts like these profile descriptions, as well as user-generated content “with a clear component of creating avatars that inspire credibility or approachability,” explains privacy and cybersecurity expert Daniel Fernández-Viagas. “It’s relatively cheap and quick to produce a large volume of accounts and videos, and the technical barrier is low, which is why it’s so widespread. Plus, it works for many people, and they’re making money quickly ,” he adds.Another shared characteristic is the use of emojis ; over 95% of profiles include at least one in their profile description, with the following being the most common: 👇, 🌿, 🇺🇸, ⬇️, ✨, 🌱, 👇🏻, 📖. According to the cybersecurity expert, "the recurrence of the same set of emojis and phrases shortens creation time and maintains brand consistency."56% of the accounts sell some type of supplement, and 32% sell books or guides with indications of having been created with AIAll these profiles share a common purpose: to gain followers and encourage them to buy the products they sell by clicking on a link visible in their profile bio or posts. While not all of them sell the same thing, most offer supplements such as beetroot root, rhodiola, or probiotics. More than half of the accounts (56%) sell some type of dietary supplement , primarily through Amazon, but also through other external websites. However, many of the products advertised for the United States are not sold on Amazon Spain.Similarly, 32.4% of the profiles we analysed sell some type of guide or book, which are the second most offered type of product after supplements. In fact, 11 accounts , mostly targeting the Spanish-speaking audience in the United States, sell the book "200 Natural Solutions for Everyday Problems" by someone named Marina López, an author about whom no trace can be found. We also found profiles, such as that of Fray Lorenzo Reflexiones , that sell their own guides. This AI-generated friar provides a link in his profile biography that redirects to a website with the same name, which claims to be located in Logroño (La Rioja, Spain). The website also features the supposed AI-generated friar and displays images of people with the book, which sells for €9.99, also created with this technology. Maldita.es has contacted the website and the email address listed there, asking who wrote the book and requesting any information about the person behind it, but we have not received a response as of the publication date of this article. The website for the guide sold by Monk Chen is identical to the one promoted by Fray Lorenzo. Both are also listed at the same price, €9.99, although both claim it's a discount and that the original price is €19.99. Another detail: both sales websites feature the same review, supposedly from a user named "María R." These similarities are common on websites where these guides and books are sold online. At Maldita.es, we've already warned about the use of fake reviews to lend credibility to services. Websites where the book advertising the profile of Monk Chen and the one advertising Friar Lawrence are sold.Other books claim to be related to ancestral remedies, Buddhist themes, or ancestral rituals, among other things. They all share similar characteristics and show signs of having been created with AI: for example, we found no information about the author Marina Martín, the supposed author of the book "200 Natural Solutions for Everyday Problems"; there is no trace of the supposed Fray Lorenzo or Monk Chen, since the images in which they both appear were generated with AI, and on the two identical websites, we find the same review by someone named María R. In no case do they offer any proof that a real person is writing these books or that these religious figures are real people.This article was written with the help of the damned Daniel Fernández-Viagas, an expert in privacy and cybersecurity, who used his superpowers to contribute his expertise.Thanks to your superpowers, knowledge, and experience, we can fight lies more effectively. The Maldita.es community is essential to stopping disinformation. Help us in this battle: send us the hoaxes you receive via our WhatsApp service, lend us your superpowers , share our fact-checks, and become an Ambassador .
The similarities between the Instagram profile Eli Hosteler (@ eli.hosteler ), which describes itself as an "Amish herbalist" living in the United States, and that of Ernesto Salute (@ernestosalute), who claims to live in the Italian region of Trentino, or with the monk Fray Lorenzo (@fraylorenzoreflexiones), are greater than the differences. All of these profiles were generated using artificial intelligence (AI), most were created during 2026, their descriptions share the same structure, and almost all of them aim to sell you something, usually supplements or books and guides that also appear to have been written by AI.These characteristics, among many others, are evidence of coordination and the use of similar templates, which allow them to create profiles en masse and through which 250 accounts analyzed by Maldita.es have been replicated. The objective, according to cybersecurity expert and Maldita.es contributor Daniel Fernández-Viagas, who has lent us his expertise, is to test niches and make money selling supplements and guides .Almost 77% of accounts were created in 2026An analysis of the 250 accounts we monitored shows that 192 were created between January and June 2026, indicating that the network began actively operating during that period. March and April saw the highest number of new Instagram accounts created, with an average of 48 new profiles each month.<img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29804921/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" /> "><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29804921/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" /> Although some accounts were created in previous years, the first videos available on those profiles are recent. For example, the first posts on the five accounts created in 2022 were made between 2025 and 2026. Some of the initial videos cover topics completely unrelated to what they publish now . For instance, the first videos, published in February 2025, on the Jae Kim Skin account, created in 2022, are about parents and newborns. Now, this profile is a supposed expert in facial care and doesn't post anything about parents and babies, clear evidence that, as Daniel Fernández-Viagas explained, they are testing niches.Another indication that this operation has only recently begun is that 131 of the 250 accounts analyzed by Maldita.es have undergone at least one name change. In fact, some, like Herbalance Lab, have accumulated up to 11 name changes since their creation in 2022, even though their first visible video was published on January 1, 2026.Name changes for the accounts @herbalance_lab, @marjorieholistics, and @voxayomiOn the other hand, we found that more than half of the accounts, 57.4%, follow other accounts within the network. For example, Paulina Secretos Salud follows Amish Folk Remedies, Grandma June, Holistic Chen, and Mother Juba, among others. Mother Juba, in turn, follows Shaman Glenroy , a profile of a supposed shaman, who in turn follows Dr. Miriam Beiler , who describes herself as a "Doctor of Traditional American Medicine" and sells yerba mate energy drinks. And so on.Paulina Secretos Salud's account follows Mother Juba, who in turn follows Shaman Glenroy, who follows Miriam Beiler. Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE "> Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE Chen monks and other profiles that share similar patternsFurther evidence of coordination among these accounts lies in the names they choose for these AI-generated characters, which are often very similar with only slight variations. For example, 12 accounts include the word "wellness" in their username: WellnessMaddie, wellnesswithjacob1, and Mayalin_wellness; three use the word "abuela" (grandmother) in Spanish: " abuela_lopez7," "Abuela.Remedies," and "Abuela Rosa"; and one uses the English word " grandmatruth" or the masculine form "Granddad Roy." Another 14 use "health" or "healthy"; five contain "herbal," and another five "holistic," among others.Sample profiles that have the word "health", "wellness" or "grandmother" in their name or handle.Many profiles not only have nearly identical names or characters, but they also use the same profile picture and the same names, one in Spanish and the other in English. This is the case with two accounts of monks named Chen (@monch_chen and @monjechen). It's a name they use consistently. We found six accounts with the name Chen: “@ chenwei.sante”, “Chen Lao (@chen.lao12)”, “Leo Chen (@leo.chenn_)”, “Monch chen (@monch_chen)” , “Mei Lin Chen (@vovomeii)”, and “Monaco Chen (@monacochenn)”, and three accounts using Shen: “Shen Mu (@shenmuhealer)”, “Shen Yu (@monkshen)”, and “Ravi Shen (@oravishen)”.The profiles of Monch Chen and Monje Chen.The elements that appear in the videos are also repeated in these profiles. For example, the American flag is present in many of them. We also observe that the characters regularly appear in front of or inside what appear to be large retail stores like Costco or Walmart. The cybersecurity expert emphasizes that this use of the flag and American-oriented language is due to “demographic and cultural” segmentation aimed at selling products.Sample videos featuring the United States flag or a supermarket chain's logo. ¿Crees que te ha llegado un bulo? Verifica en nuestro chatbot de WhatsApp (+34 644 229 319) "> ¿Crees que te ha llegado un bulo? Verifica en nuestro chatbot de WhatsApp (+34 644 229 319) Same types of profiles, locations, and account descriptionsThe 250 accounts revolve around four main categories of profiles: rural elders, "holistic" practitioners, shamans or Easterners, and religious figures. Looking at their descriptions, almost all share the same structure: three lines of text and a link. "An attempt to project authority, but selling solutions that are unproven, unscientific, or unvalidated," explains Fernández-Viagas.Among the most used words in these profile descriptions are “health”, “wellness”; “years”, “natural”, “holistic” or “wisdom”. <img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805004/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="word-cloud visualization" /> "><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805004/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="word-cloud visualization" /> These words are in English, as 61.2% of these profiles are in that language. Spanish follows with 50 profiles. Regarding the country where Instagram places these accounts, more than half ( 132 out of 250) are in the United States. The rest are located in other countries such as Spain (15), France (19), Brazil (18), the United Kingdom (12), Canada (8), and Germany (8), among others. .lls-tabla-container{ width:100%; margin:20px 0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; } .lls-titulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 8px; font-size:20px; font-weight:700; line-height:1.3; color:#000000 !important; } .lls-subtitulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 18px; font-size:13px !important; line-height:1.5 !important; font-weight:400 !important; color:#555 !important; } .lls-tabla{ width:auto; max-width:650px; border-collapse:collapse; display:inline-table; } .lls-tabla td{ border:1px solid #ddd; padding:12px 14px; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:nth-child(even){ background:#fafafa; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:hover{ background:#f0f7ff; } .lls-pais{ display:flex; align-items:center; gap:12px; } .lls-bandera{ width:24px; height:18px; border:1px solid #ddd; border-radius:2px; flex-shrink:0; } .lls-info{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; width:100%; } .lls-nombre{ font-weight:600; color:#222; margin-bottom:6px; } .lls-cuentas{ width:320px; height:10px; background:#e6e6e6; border-radius:999px; overflow:hidden; } .lls-bar{ height:100%; background:#c13584; border-radius:999px; } .lls-pie{ max-width:650px; margin:12px 0 0; font-size:10px !important; line-height:1.3 !important; color:#666 !important; font-style:italic !important; } More than half of the accounts have their Instagram location in the United States List of countries where the 250* accounts are located, according to information available on Instagram. The length of each bar represents the percentage of profiles located in each country. US France Spain Brazil United Kingdom Germany Canada Italy Australia —No shared Sweden Indonesia *The following countries have been removed from the visualization as they represent less than 1%: Argentina, Portugal, Vietnam, Benin, Belgium, Colombia, United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Luxembourg, Morocco, Montenegro, Myanmar, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia and Thailand. "> .lls-tabla-container{ width:100%; margin:20px 0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; } .lls-titulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 8px; font-size:20px; font-weight:700; line-height:1.3; color:#000000 !important; } .lls-subtitulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 18px; font-size:13px !important; line-height:1.5 !important; font-weight:400 !important; color:#555 !important; } .lls-tabla{ width:auto; max-width:650px; border-collapse:collapse; display:inline-table; } .lls-tabla td{ border:1px solid #ddd; padding:12px 14px; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:nth-child(even){ background:#fafafa; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:hover{ background:#f0f7ff; } .lls-pais{ display:flex; align-items:center; gap:12px; } .lls-bandera{ width:24px; height:18px; border:1px solid #ddd; border-radius:2px; flex-shrink:0; } .lls-info{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; width:100%; } .lls-nombre{ font-weight:600; color:#222; margin-bottom:6px; } .lls-cuentas{ width:320px; height:10px; background:#e6e6e6; border-radius:999px; overflow:hidden; } .lls-bar{ height:100%; background:#c13584; border-radius:999px; } .lls-pie{ max-width:650px; margin:12px 0 0; font-size:10px !important; line-height:1.3 !important; color:#666 !important; font-style:italic !important; } More than half of the accounts have their Instagram location in the United States List of countries where the 250* accounts are located, according to information available on Instagram. The length of each bar represents the percentage of profiles located in each country. US France Spain Brazil United Kingdom Germany Canada Italy Australia —No shared Sweden Indonesia *The following countries have been removed from the visualization as they represent less than 1%: Argentina, Portugal, Vietnam, Benin, Belgium, Colombia, United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Luxembourg, Morocco, Montenegro, Myanmar, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia and Thailand. Furthermore, the profile descriptions are characterised by the use of similar formulas, which consist of four parts:Presentation of the expert or reference: holistic expert, wellness specialist, member of the Amish community, etc.Authority: They tell you why you should trust them with phrases like "Based on ancestral wisdom," "Certified," "More than 10 years of experience," and others.Benefit: what those who follow them would obtain: “health tips”, “wellness secrets”, “longevity”.What you have to do, the call to action : “follow us for daily health tips”, “get my guide”, “link below” and “click here”.Sample of profile descriptions that, as we can see, correspond to the same type of structure.This would indicate that most of the profiles analysed use templates to create these descriptions, substituting some of the variables to avoid being identical. There are “public and commercial collections of prompts and templates optimised for generating scripts ” and short texts like these profile descriptions, as well as user-generated content “with a clear component of creating avatars that inspire credibility or approachability,” explains privacy and cybersecurity expert Daniel Fernández-Viagas. “It’s relatively cheap and quick to produce a large volume of accounts and videos, and the technical barrier is low, which is why it’s so widespread. Plus, it works for many people, and they’re making money quickly ,” he adds.Another shared characteristic is the use of emojis ; over 95% of profiles include at least one in their profile description, with the following being the most common: 👇, 🌿, 🇺🇸, ⬇️, ✨, 🌱, 👇🏻, 📖. According to the cybersecurity expert, "the recurrence of the same set of emojis and phrases shortens creation time and maintains brand consistency."56% of the accounts sell some type of supplement, and 32% sell books or guides with indications of having been created with AIAll these profiles share a common purpose: to gain followers and encourage them to buy the products they sell by clicking on a link visible in their profile bio or posts. While not all of them sell the same thing, most offer supplements such as beetroot root, rhodiola, or probiotics. More than half of the accounts (56%) sell some type of dietary supplement , primarily through Amazon, but also through other external websites. However, many of the products advertised for the United States are not sold on Amazon Spain.Similarly, 32.4% of the profiles we analysed sell some type of guide or book, which are the second most offered type of product after supplements. In fact, 11 accounts , mostly targeting the Spanish-speaking audience in the United States, sell the book "200 Natural Solutions for Everyday Problems" by someone named Marina López, an author about whom no trace can be found. We also found profiles, such as that of Fray Lorenzo Reflexiones , that sell their own guides. This AI-generated friar provides a link in his profile biography that redirects to a website with the same name, which claims to be located in Logroño (La Rioja, Spain). The website also features the supposed AI-generated friar and displays images of people with the book, which sells for €9.99, also created with this technology. Maldita.es has contacted the website and the email address listed there, asking who wrote the book and requesting any information about the person behind it, but we have not received a response as of the publication date of this article. The website for the guide sold by Monk Chen is identical to the one promoted by Fray Lorenzo. Both are also listed at the same price, €9.99, although both claim it's a discount and that the original price is €19.99. Another detail: both sales websites feature the same review, supposedly from a user named "María R." These similarities are common on websites where these guides and books are sold online. At Maldita.es, we've already warned about the use of fake reviews to lend credibility to services. Websites where the book advertising the profile of Monk Chen and the one advertising Friar Lawrence are sold.Other books claim to be related to ancestral remedies, Buddhist themes, or ancestral rituals, among other things. They all share similar characteristics and show signs of having been created with AI: for example, we found no information about the author Marina Martín, the supposed author of the book "200 Natural Solutions for Everyday Problems"; there is no trace of the supposed Fray Lorenzo or Monk Chen, since the images in which they both appear were generated with AI, and on the two identical websites, we find the same review by someone named María R. In no case do they offer any proof that a real person is writing these books or that these religious figures are real people.This article was written with the help of the damned Daniel Fernández-Viagas, an expert in privacy and cybersecurity, who used his superpowers to contribute his expertise.Thanks to your superpowers, knowledge, and experience, we can fight lies more effectively. The Maldita.es community is essential to stopping disinformation. Help us in this battle: send us the hoaxes you receive via our WhatsApp service, lend us your superpowers , share our fact-checks, and become an Ambassador .
10 minutes
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand said he supports banning social media for children under age 16, setting age verification and parental consent requirements on certain apps and providing more safeguards for minors online, according to a kids’ online safety policy platform released Monday. The plan, shared first with Iowa Capital Dispatch, is focused on restricting […]
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand said he supports banning social media for children under age 16, setting age verification and parental consent requirements on certain apps and providing more safeguards for minors online, according to a kids’ online safety policy platform released Monday. The plan, shared first with Iowa Capital Dispatch, is focused on restricting […]
11 minutes
📲 ¡Pincha aquí y sigue el canal de WhatsApp de Maldita.es para que no te la cuelen! "> 📲 ¡Pincha aquí y sigue el canal de WhatsApp de Maldita.es para que no te la cuelen! The Instagram account paulina.secretos.salud claims that all you need is crushed ginger on the soles of your feet overnight to make foot, knee, and back pain disappear. “Doctors have no explanation for this”, says the woman in the video, a Black woman with short, graying hair sitting in front of a U.S. flag and several diplomas (a setting intended to simulate a doctor’s office). Paulina does not exist (she is an AI-generated avatar), and her advice is not supported by scientific evidence.Monk Chen, Paco del Campo, and Paulina are three of the 50 profiles analyzed that use AI to spread health-related misinformation in Spanish on this platform. Most of these accounts are relatively new: 84% (42) were created between February and June 2026. In just five months, these profiles have posted more than 3,100 videos (57.8% of the total content from all the accounts analyzed). Collectively, these 50 accounts have more than 12.6 million followers.Two of the accounts that use artificial intelligence to spread supposed health tips. Source: Instagram.50 accounts that post content in Spanish from 14 different countriesAlthough all of these accounts post content exclusively in Spanish, only 17 of them are located in Spain, Peru, or Argentina. The remaining 34 (this information is not available for one of the profiles) are located in 11 other non-Spanish-speaking countries. In fact, the United States is the most common location in the sample; according to Instagram, this is the location of the profiles in 19 of the 49 cases. .lls-tabla-container{ width:100%; margin:20px 0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; } .lls-titulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 8px; font-size:24px !important; font-weight:700 !important; line-height:1.3 !important; color:#000 !important; } .lls-subtitulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 18px; font-size:16px !important; line-height:1.5 !important; font-weight:400 !important; color:#555 !important; } .lls-tabla{ width:auto; max-width:650px; border-collapse:collapse; display:inline-table; } .lls-tabla td{ border:1px solid #ddd; padding:12px 14px; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:nth-child(even){ background:#fafafa; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:hover{ background:#f0f7ff; } .lls-pais{ display:flex; align-items:flex-start; gap:12px; } .lls-bandera{ width:24px; height:18px; border:1px solid #ddd; border-radius:2px; margin-top:2px; flex-shrink:0; } .lls-info{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; } .lls-nombre{ font-weight:600; color:#222; margin-bottom:6px; } .lls-cuentas{ display:flex; flex-wrap:wrap; gap:3px; } .lls-cuentas svg{ width:12px; height:12px; fill:#c13584; flex:0 0 auto; } /* Pie */ .lls-footer{ max-width:650px; margin-top:12px !important; } .lls-pie{ margin:0; font-size:13px !important; line-height:1.4 !important; color:#666 !important; font-style:italic; } .lls-fuente{ max-width:650px; margin-top:8px; padding-top:8px; border-top:1px solid #ccc; display:flex; justify-content:space-between; align-items:flex-end; } .lls-fuente-texto{ font-size:11px !important; color:#444 !important; font-weight:600 !important; } .lls-logo{ height:22px; width:auto; } Less than 35% of the accounts are located in a Spanish-speaking country List of countries where the 49* accounts are located, according to information available on Instagram. Each emoji represents one of the profiles. Germany Argentina Belgium Brazil Spain United States France Georgia Indonesia Morocco Myanmar Peru United Kingdom Vietnam *This information was not available for one of the accounts. Source: Instagram "> .lls-tabla-container{ width:100%; margin:20px 0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; } .lls-titulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 8px; font-size:24px !important; font-weight:700 !important; line-height:1.3 !important; color:#000 !important; } .lls-subtitulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 18px; font-size:16px !important; line-height:1.5 !important; font-weight:400 !important; color:#555 !important; } .lls-tabla{ width:auto; max-width:650px; border-collapse:collapse; display:inline-table; } .lls-tabla td{ border:1px solid #ddd; padding:12px 14px; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:nth-child(even){ background:#fafafa; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:hover{ background:#f0f7ff; } .lls-pais{ display:flex; align-items:flex-start; gap:12px; } .lls-bandera{ width:24px; height:18px; border:1px solid #ddd; border-radius:2px; margin-top:2px; flex-shrink:0; } .lls-info{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; } .lls-nombre{ font-weight:600; color:#222; margin-bottom:6px; } .lls-cuentas{ display:flex; flex-wrap:wrap; gap:3px; } .lls-cuentas svg{ width:12px; height:12px; fill:#c13584; flex:0 0 auto; } /* Pie */ .lls-footer{ max-width:650px; margin-top:12px !important; } .lls-pie{ margin:0; font-size:13px !important; line-height:1.4 !important; color:#666 !important; font-style:italic; } .lls-fuente{ max-width:650px; margin-top:8px; padding-top:8px; border-top:1px solid #ccc; display:flex; justify-content:space-between; align-items:flex-end; } .lls-fuente-texto{ font-size:11px !important; color:#444 !important; font-weight:600 !important; } .lls-logo{ height:22px; width:auto; } Less than 35% of the accounts are located in a Spanish-speaking country List of countries where the 49* accounts are located, according to information available on Instagram. Each emoji represents one of the profiles. Germany Argentina Belgium Brazil Spain United States France Georgia Indonesia Morocco Myanmar Peru United Kingdom Vietnam *This information was not available for one of the accounts. Source: Instagram Even other profiles, which, according to the platform, are located outside North America, claim to be connected to the United States. Mateo Rodriguez, a profile based in Germany, writes in his bio: “Wellness expert based in Austin, Texas” (sic). His content consists mainly of videos set in American supermarket chains such as Costco, Walmart, Walgreens, Target and Sprouts. Samuel’s profile, which claims to share “Amish remedies your doctor will never tell you about”, is based in Belgium. However, his bio states that he is “based in the United States”. Furthermore, in several of his videos, U.S. flags can be seen in the background, a recurring element in the videos from the accounts we analyzed. Gemini, Google’s AI, detects the SynthID watermark in all of this content, a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models.Profiles that include references to the United States in their bios, even though they are located in other countries. Source: Instagram.Remedies and treatments “that traditional medicine doesn’t tell you about” and “tested over the years”, these are the arguments they use to convince usersThe protagonists of these accounts are not always the same. They range from men and women in rural areas to preachers of different religions or “Shaolin” masters (a lifestyle that combines Buddhism, Zen meditation and martial arts). A common trait among all these fictional characters is their age: these accounts use avatars of advanced age. Another common type of subject in these accounts are younger characters (also created with AI), often depicted in settings that mimic doctors’ offices or with profile pictures showing them dressed as healthcare workers. They call themselves “wellness experts”, and in several examples, terms such as “holistic health” or “naturopath” appear. They use these characters as an appeal to authority, capitalizing on the credibility commonly associated with older people and the reputation of health experts and scientists.Accounts that use various different characters to offer supposed health advice in their AI-generated videos. Source: Instagram.These aren’t the only strategies they use to gain users’ trust. In their bios, we see phrases like “what your grandmother knew but the pharmacy won’t tell you”, “ancestral wisdom for modern life”, or “ancestral knowledge from my rural community about natural health” to make people believe that the supposed health secrets they provide are remedies or treatments not found in evidence-based medicine. To convince users that their methods have been tested over many years, they use phrases such as “40 years of remedies I’ve lived by, not just read about”, “70 years of natural remedies” or “more than 20 years recommending natural remedies”.These messages can pose a risk to users by increasing the likelihood that they will self-diagnose conditions they do not actually have or believe that the pseudo-treatments and advice from these accounts are effective, thereby dismissing scientifically validated and truly effective methods. This, in turn, can lead to widespread distrust of the healthcare system and of science as a whole.Guides offering so-called tips or supplements, the products these accounts are trying to sell youWhat is the purpose of leading users to believe that there are real people behind these profiles offering advice that “works”? Four out of every five accounts are trying to sell something. In 40 of the 50 cases analyzed, there is a link to a website selling a product. Half (23) are selling a book, a guide, or a document containing supposed health advice or treatments. In some cases, it’s even the same product. Ten of these 23 accounts link to a book titled 200 Natural Solutions for Everyday Problems, written by Marina Lopez, of whom there is no trace. It is sold on Amazon for around 31 euros.Daniel Fernández-Viagas, an expert in privacy and cybersecurity, and the blessed soul who has lent us his superpowers, explains that links generated through Amazon’s affiliate program typically contain “tracking codes” that allow each purchase made through that URL to “generate a commission for the account holder”. In this way, these profiles earn profits even when the sale takes place on external platforms.The guides sold by seven other accounts are visually very similar. Although there are slight variations in the titles, the covers displayed on the sales websites follow the same style. These products are priced between 17.45 and 9.99 euros, based on the discounts available at the time of our research. According to Fernández-Viagas, the production cost of these products “is zero” when artificial intelligence is used to generate them, so “the return on investment can be very high.” In other words, in the expert’s words, in these cases there is “little risk” and “plenty of opportunities to make a profit”.Guides and books aren’t the only things they sell. The links on the other 17 accounts lead to various types of dietary supplements. All of these profiles, except one, sell these products through Amazon, where the catalog varies depending on the country from which the purchase is made. In 16 of these cases, for example, the supplements cannot be purchased from Spain (in all of them, the message “No offers available” appears). However, we have verified that they are available in the United States.Experts say these supplements are unnecessary for the general healthy population. Furthermore, taking them on one’s own initiative, without a doctor’s prescription, could pose risks to consumers: liver damage, poisoning, vitamin toxicity and similar conditions are some of the consequences experts point out.The cursed Daniel Fernández-Viagas, an expert in privacy and cybersecurity, has contributed his superpowers to this article.Thanks to your superpowers, knowledge, and experience, we can fight lies more effectively. The Maldita.es community is essential to stopping misinformation. Help us in this battle: send us any hoaxes you come across via our WhatsApp service, lend us your superpowers, share our fact-checks, and become an Ambassador. Methodology For this article, Maldita.es has compiled a list of 50 Instagram accounts that use artificial intelligence to share health-related content. Some of these profiles appeared organically in the platform’s feed, while others were added after conducting a search among the followers of the first accounts included in the list. The accounts were created between December 2014 and June 2026, and at the time of data collection (conducted between July 20 and 21, 2026), they had a combined total of more than 12.6 million followers and more than 5,400 posts. As of July 27, some of the profiles had been removed from the platform. For each of these accounts, the following information was collected: link (also archived or accompanied by a screenshot if that was not possible), username, and profile name (which does not necessarily match the username and may overlap with those of other users), platform ID (extracted using a tool from My OSINT Tools), whether or not the account was verified, the number of times the name has been changed, the country listed by the platform (which explains on its website that this is determined based on the account’s activity), the bio text, the creation date, number of posts, followers, and users it follows. Each and every one of the 50 accounts was also checked to see if there were other profiles with the same characteristics among those it followed. We also collected and analyzed the links available both in the biography and in other sections of the profile, such as featured stories. In total, 40 of the 50 accounts had a visible URL where they sold some type of product on various external platforms. A foreign VPN (Virtual Private Network) was used to access products not available in Spain. The lowest price for each of these items was recorded, taking into account any discounts available at the time of data collection. To determine whether the content was generated by artificial intelligence, we used Gemini, Google’s AI, which is capable of detecting SynthID watermark, a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models. Some of the content had a visible watermark in the video. Our observations have shown us that there are more accounts with these characteristics available on the platform; therefore, while the sample included in this article does not cover all profiles, it does represent the phenomenon. If you have any questions, please contact us at investigacion@maldita.es "> Methodology For this article, Maldita.es has compiled a list of 50 Instagram accounts that use artificial intelligence to share health-related content. Some of these profiles appeared organically in the platform’s feed, while others were added after conducting a search among the followers of the first accounts included in the list. The accounts were created between December 2014 and June 2026, and at the time of data collection (conducted between July 20 and 21, 2026), they had a combined total of more than 12.6 million followers and more than 5,400 posts. As of July 27, some of the profiles had been removed from the platform. For each of these accounts, the following information was collected: link (also archived or accompanied by a screenshot if that was not possible), username, and profile name (which does not necessarily match the username and may overlap with those of other users), platform ID (extracted using a tool from My OSINT Tools), whether or not the account was verified, the number of times the name has been changed, the country listed by the platform (which explains on its website that this is determined based on the account’s activity), the bio text, the creation date, number of posts, followers, and users it follows. Each and every one of the 50 accounts was also checked to see if there were other profiles with the same characteristics among those it followed. We also collected and analyzed the links available both in the biography and in other sections of the profile, such as featured stories. In total, 40 of the 50 accounts had a visible URL where they sold some type of product on various external platforms. A foreign VPN (Virtual Private Network) was used to access products not available in Spain. The lowest price for each of these items was recorded, taking into account any discounts available at the time of data collection. To determine whether the content was generated by artificial intelligence, we used Gemini, Google’s AI, which is capable of detecting SynthID watermark, a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models. Some of the content had a visible watermark in the video. Our observations have shown us that there are more accounts with these characteristics available on the platform; therefore, while the sample included in this article does not cover all profiles, it does represent the phenomenon. If you have any questions, please contact us at investigacion@maldita.es
📲 ¡Pincha aquí y sigue el canal de WhatsApp de Maldita.es para que no te la cuelen! "> 📲 ¡Pincha aquí y sigue el canal de WhatsApp de Maldita.es para que no te la cuelen! The Instagram account paulina.secretos.salud claims that all you need is crushed ginger on the soles of your feet overnight to make foot, knee, and back pain disappear. “Doctors have no explanation for this”, says the woman in the video, a Black woman with short, graying hair sitting in front of a U.S. flag and several diplomas (a setting intended to simulate a doctor’s office). Paulina does not exist (she is an AI-generated avatar), and her advice is not supported by scientific evidence.Monk Chen, Paco del Campo, and Paulina are three of the 50 profiles analyzed that use AI to spread health-related misinformation in Spanish on this platform. Most of these accounts are relatively new: 84% (42) were created between February and June 2026. In just five months, these profiles have posted more than 3,100 videos (57.8% of the total content from all the accounts analyzed). Collectively, these 50 accounts have more than 12.6 million followers.Two of the accounts that use artificial intelligence to spread supposed health tips. Source: Instagram.50 accounts that post content in Spanish from 14 different countriesAlthough all of these accounts post content exclusively in Spanish, only 17 of them are located in Spain, Peru, or Argentina. The remaining 34 (this information is not available for one of the profiles) are located in 11 other non-Spanish-speaking countries. In fact, the United States is the most common location in the sample; according to Instagram, this is the location of the profiles in 19 of the 49 cases. .lls-tabla-container{ width:100%; margin:20px 0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; } .lls-titulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 8px; font-size:24px !important; font-weight:700 !important; line-height:1.3 !important; color:#000 !important; } .lls-subtitulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 18px; font-size:16px !important; line-height:1.5 !important; font-weight:400 !important; color:#555 !important; } .lls-tabla{ width:auto; max-width:650px; border-collapse:collapse; display:inline-table; } .lls-tabla td{ border:1px solid #ddd; padding:12px 14px; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:nth-child(even){ background:#fafafa; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:hover{ background:#f0f7ff; } .lls-pais{ display:flex; align-items:flex-start; gap:12px; } .lls-bandera{ width:24px; height:18px; border:1px solid #ddd; border-radius:2px; margin-top:2px; flex-shrink:0; } .lls-info{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; } .lls-nombre{ font-weight:600; color:#222; margin-bottom:6px; } .lls-cuentas{ display:flex; flex-wrap:wrap; gap:3px; } .lls-cuentas svg{ width:12px; height:12px; fill:#c13584; flex:0 0 auto; } /* Pie */ .lls-footer{ max-width:650px; margin-top:12px !important; } .lls-pie{ margin:0; font-size:13px !important; line-height:1.4 !important; color:#666 !important; font-style:italic; } .lls-fuente{ max-width:650px; margin-top:8px; padding-top:8px; border-top:1px solid #ccc; display:flex; justify-content:space-between; align-items:flex-end; } .lls-fuente-texto{ font-size:11px !important; color:#444 !important; font-weight:600 !important; } .lls-logo{ height:22px; width:auto; } Less than 35% of the accounts are located in a Spanish-speaking country List of countries where the 49* accounts are located, according to information available on Instagram. Each emoji represents one of the profiles. Germany Argentina Belgium Brazil Spain United States France Georgia Indonesia Morocco Myanmar Peru United Kingdom Vietnam *This information was not available for one of the accounts. Source: Instagram "> .lls-tabla-container{ width:100%; margin:20px 0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; } .lls-titulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 8px; font-size:24px !important; font-weight:700 !important; line-height:1.3 !important; color:#000 !important; } .lls-subtitulo{ max-width:650px; margin:0 0 18px; font-size:16px !important; line-height:1.5 !important; font-weight:400 !important; color:#555 !important; } .lls-tabla{ width:auto; max-width:650px; border-collapse:collapse; display:inline-table; } .lls-tabla td{ border:1px solid #ddd; padding:12px 14px; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:nth-child(even){ background:#fafafa; } .lls-tabla tbody tr:hover{ background:#f0f7ff; } .lls-pais{ display:flex; align-items:flex-start; gap:12px; } .lls-bandera{ width:24px; height:18px; border:1px solid #ddd; border-radius:2px; margin-top:2px; flex-shrink:0; } .lls-info{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; } .lls-nombre{ font-weight:600; color:#222; margin-bottom:6px; } .lls-cuentas{ display:flex; flex-wrap:wrap; gap:3px; } .lls-cuentas svg{ width:12px; height:12px; fill:#c13584; flex:0 0 auto; } /* Pie */ .lls-footer{ max-width:650px; margin-top:12px !important; } .lls-pie{ margin:0; font-size:13px !important; line-height:1.4 !important; color:#666 !important; font-style:italic; } .lls-fuente{ max-width:650px; margin-top:8px; padding-top:8px; border-top:1px solid #ccc; display:flex; justify-content:space-between; align-items:flex-end; } .lls-fuente-texto{ font-size:11px !important; color:#444 !important; font-weight:600 !important; } .lls-logo{ height:22px; width:auto; } Less than 35% of the accounts are located in a Spanish-speaking country List of countries where the 49* accounts are located, according to information available on Instagram. Each emoji represents one of the profiles. Germany Argentina Belgium Brazil Spain United States France Georgia Indonesia Morocco Myanmar Peru United Kingdom Vietnam *This information was not available for one of the accounts. Source: Instagram Even other profiles, which, according to the platform, are located outside North America, claim to be connected to the United States. Mateo Rodriguez, a profile based in Germany, writes in his bio: “Wellness expert based in Austin, Texas” (sic). His content consists mainly of videos set in American supermarket chains such as Costco, Walmart, Walgreens, Target and Sprouts. Samuel’s profile, which claims to share “Amish remedies your doctor will never tell you about”, is based in Belgium. However, his bio states that he is “based in the United States”. Furthermore, in several of his videos, U.S. flags can be seen in the background, a recurring element in the videos from the accounts we analyzed. Gemini, Google’s AI, detects the SynthID watermark in all of this content, a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models.Profiles that include references to the United States in their bios, even though they are located in other countries. Source: Instagram.Remedies and treatments “that traditional medicine doesn’t tell you about” and “tested over the years”, these are the arguments they use to convince usersThe protagonists of these accounts are not always the same. They range from men and women in rural areas to preachers of different religions or “Shaolin” masters (a lifestyle that combines Buddhism, Zen meditation and martial arts). A common trait among all these fictional characters is their age: these accounts use avatars of advanced age. Another common type of subject in these accounts are younger characters (also created with AI), often depicted in settings that mimic doctors’ offices or with profile pictures showing them dressed as healthcare workers. They call themselves “wellness experts”, and in several examples, terms such as “holistic health” or “naturopath” appear. They use these characters as an appeal to authority, capitalizing on the credibility commonly associated with older people and the reputation of health experts and scientists.Accounts that use various different characters to offer supposed health advice in their AI-generated videos. Source: Instagram.These aren’t the only strategies they use to gain users’ trust. In their bios, we see phrases like “what your grandmother knew but the pharmacy won’t tell you”, “ancestral wisdom for modern life”, or “ancestral knowledge from my rural community about natural health” to make people believe that the supposed health secrets they provide are remedies or treatments not found in evidence-based medicine. To convince users that their methods have been tested over many years, they use phrases such as “40 years of remedies I’ve lived by, not just read about”, “70 years of natural remedies” or “more than 20 years recommending natural remedies”.These messages can pose a risk to users by increasing the likelihood that they will self-diagnose conditions they do not actually have or believe that the pseudo-treatments and advice from these accounts are effective, thereby dismissing scientifically validated and truly effective methods. This, in turn, can lead to widespread distrust of the healthcare system and of science as a whole.Guides offering so-called tips or supplements, the products these accounts are trying to sell youWhat is the purpose of leading users to believe that there are real people behind these profiles offering advice that “works”? Four out of every five accounts are trying to sell something. In 40 of the 50 cases analyzed, there is a link to a website selling a product. Half (23) are selling a book, a guide, or a document containing supposed health advice or treatments. In some cases, it’s even the same product. Ten of these 23 accounts link to a book titled 200 Natural Solutions for Everyday Problems, written by Marina Lopez, of whom there is no trace. It is sold on Amazon for around 31 euros.Daniel Fernández-Viagas, an expert in privacy and cybersecurity, and the blessed soul who has lent us his superpowers, explains that links generated through Amazon’s affiliate program typically contain “tracking codes” that allow each purchase made through that URL to “generate a commission for the account holder”. In this way, these profiles earn profits even when the sale takes place on external platforms.The guides sold by seven other accounts are visually very similar. Although there are slight variations in the titles, the covers displayed on the sales websites follow the same style. These products are priced between 17.45 and 9.99 euros, based on the discounts available at the time of our research. According to Fernández-Viagas, the production cost of these products “is zero” when artificial intelligence is used to generate them, so “the return on investment can be very high.” In other words, in the expert’s words, in these cases there is “little risk” and “plenty of opportunities to make a profit”.Guides and books aren’t the only things they sell. The links on the other 17 accounts lead to various types of dietary supplements. All of these profiles, except one, sell these products through Amazon, where the catalog varies depending on the country from which the purchase is made. In 16 of these cases, for example, the supplements cannot be purchased from Spain (in all of them, the message “No offers available” appears). However, we have verified that they are available in the United States.Experts say these supplements are unnecessary for the general healthy population. Furthermore, taking them on one’s own initiative, without a doctor’s prescription, could pose risks to consumers: liver damage, poisoning, vitamin toxicity and similar conditions are some of the consequences experts point out.The cursed Daniel Fernández-Viagas, an expert in privacy and cybersecurity, has contributed his superpowers to this article.Thanks to your superpowers, knowledge, and experience, we can fight lies more effectively. The Maldita.es community is essential to stopping misinformation. Help us in this battle: send us any hoaxes you come across via our WhatsApp service, lend us your superpowers, share our fact-checks, and become an Ambassador. Methodology For this article, Maldita.es has compiled a list of 50 Instagram accounts that use artificial intelligence to share health-related content. Some of these profiles appeared organically in the platform’s feed, while others were added after conducting a search among the followers of the first accounts included in the list. The accounts were created between December 2014 and June 2026, and at the time of data collection (conducted between July 20 and 21, 2026), they had a combined total of more than 12.6 million followers and more than 5,400 posts. As of July 27, some of the profiles had been removed from the platform. For each of these accounts, the following information was collected: link (also archived or accompanied by a screenshot if that was not possible), username, and profile name (which does not necessarily match the username and may overlap with those of other users), platform ID (extracted using a tool from My OSINT Tools), whether or not the account was verified, the number of times the name has been changed, the country listed by the platform (which explains on its website that this is determined based on the account’s activity), the bio text, the creation date, number of posts, followers, and users it follows. Each and every one of the 50 accounts was also checked to see if there were other profiles with the same characteristics among those it followed. We also collected and analyzed the links available both in the biography and in other sections of the profile, such as featured stories. In total, 40 of the 50 accounts had a visible URL where they sold some type of product on various external platforms. A foreign VPN (Virtual Private Network) was used to access products not available in Spain. The lowest price for each of these items was recorded, taking into account any discounts available at the time of data collection. To determine whether the content was generated by artificial intelligence, we used Gemini, Google’s AI, which is capable of detecting SynthID watermark, a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models. Some of the content had a visible watermark in the video. Our observations have shown us that there are more accounts with these characteristics available on the platform; therefore, while the sample included in this article does not cover all profiles, it does represent the phenomenon. If you have any questions, please contact us at investigacion@maldita.es "> Methodology For this article, Maldita.es has compiled a list of 50 Instagram accounts that use artificial intelligence to share health-related content. Some of these profiles appeared organically in the platform’s feed, while others were added after conducting a search among the followers of the first accounts included in the list. The accounts were created between December 2014 and June 2026, and at the time of data collection (conducted between July 20 and 21, 2026), they had a combined total of more than 12.6 million followers and more than 5,400 posts. As of July 27, some of the profiles had been removed from the platform. For each of these accounts, the following information was collected: link (also archived or accompanied by a screenshot if that was not possible), username, and profile name (which does not necessarily match the username and may overlap with those of other users), platform ID (extracted using a tool from My OSINT Tools), whether or not the account was verified, the number of times the name has been changed, the country listed by the platform (which explains on its website that this is determined based on the account’s activity), the bio text, the creation date, number of posts, followers, and users it follows. Each and every one of the 50 accounts was also checked to see if there were other profiles with the same characteristics among those it followed. We also collected and analyzed the links available both in the biography and in other sections of the profile, such as featured stories. In total, 40 of the 50 accounts had a visible URL where they sold some type of product on various external platforms. A foreign VPN (Virtual Private Network) was used to access products not available in Spain. The lowest price for each of these items was recorded, taking into account any discounts available at the time of data collection. To determine whether the content was generated by artificial intelligence, we used Gemini, Google’s AI, which is capable of detecting SynthID watermark, a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models. Some of the content had a visible watermark in the video. Our observations have shown us that there are more accounts with these characteristics available on the platform; therefore, while the sample included in this article does not cover all profiles, it does represent the phenomenon. If you have any questions, please contact us at investigacion@maldita.es
11 minutes
Tourism bounces back in 2026. The post How Malmstrom contributed to the Lewis and Clark story appeared first on Montana Free Press.
Tourism bounces back in 2026. The post How Malmstrom contributed to the Lewis and Clark story appeared first on Montana Free Press.
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Pencils are more expensive. So are notebooks, scissors, glue sticks — just about every back-to-school item that families will load into their literal or virtual carts this summer has gone up in price at a time when American families already feel crushed by rising costs. According to one analysis of the 21 most common school […]
Pencils are more expensive. So are notebooks, scissors, glue sticks — just about every back-to-school item that families will load into their literal or virtual carts this summer has gone up in price at a time when American families already feel crushed by rising costs. According to one analysis of the 21 most common school […]
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Decades after organizing to bring water and sewer service to border colonias, Socorro residents are once again going door to door to fight what they see as a new threat to their community. The post Socorro Catholic churches unite residents over ICE detention center, water concerns appeared first on El Paso Matters.
Decades after organizing to bring water and sewer service to border colonias, Socorro residents are once again going door to door to fight what they see as a new threat to their community. The post Socorro Catholic churches unite residents over ICE detention center, water concerns appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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<img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805445/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="cards visualization" />"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805445/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="cards visualization" />Over 45,600 posts: this is how the AI slop machine churns out so-called health advice“Did you know you can ‘unblock’ your ears in just five minutes?” asks Emilio Vega (@vega.naturalmed), a so-called “content creator specialising in natural medicine”, as he pours a mixture of coconut oil and hydrogen peroxide into an ear, which immediately begins to expel debris and foam. The video has been viewed more than 6.5 million times, and users have left comments such as “thank you, doctor” and “what a great cleaning method”. Although not every user who consumes his content seems to be aware of it, Emilio does not exist: the post bears Meta’s “AI Information” label, and text accompanying the video reads “synthetic performer-ad”.In those 45,600 posts from 250 Instagram profiles analysed, both Meta’s synthetic content labels and these watermarks appear repeatedly. Some directly identify themselves as “AI influencers” or display inconsistencies typical of AI-generated content, such as unintelligible text and impossible figures (limbs appearing out of nowhere or misshapen body parts). But none of this seems to stop them going viral. Natalia Martín, psychologist, explains that even when there are clear signs that the character is not real, the message can still be perceived as credible: “If the message aligns with the recipient’s existing beliefs, confirmation bias makes it easier for us to accept it”.Videos and accounts label their content as AI-generated. Source: Instagram.The use of artificial intelligence allows these accounts to create content on a large scale: they post several times a day, and some profiles have accumulated hundreds or even thousands of videos in total. In this way, they have created a machine churning out ‘AI slop’: low-quality content created with AI that is often eye-catching, repetitive and incoherent, and is mass-produced to go viral and generate revenue. Brains infested with worms, feet with holes oozing pus, and a severed torso from which earthworms emerge are just some of the grotesque scenes found in this content, designed to grab users’ attention.Many videos feature grotesque or eye-catching scenes to grab users’ attention. Source: Instagram.“[AI Slop] Clutters media ecosystems with information overload; it is digital rubbish and pollution, which hides legitimate, high-quality content (or at least makes it difficult to find),” Javi Cantón, a researcher in the Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Granada, warned Maldita.es about this type of content. But when it comes to health, the risks can be even greater: “The main danger of these accounts is that they misinform the public about health matters. This, in itself, already infringes constitutional rights such as the consumer’s right to accurate information and the special protection of the health of any member of the public who comes across such content,” Emilio José Molina, vice-president of the Association for the Protection of Patients from Pseudo-Scientific Therapies (APETP), told Maldita.es.76.8% of the accounts analysed were created during the first half of 2026 and are active in at least seven languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German and Russian). The most popular is English, used by 61.2% of the profiles analysed, which is also the most widely spoken language in the world. Although these accounts operate from different countries, more than half (52.8%) are based in the United States. Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE "> Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE A link in the bio or a ‘comment guide’: the techniques they use to direct you to Amazon and sell you supplements and booksThe aim of this network is, for the most part, to direct us to other websites to sell us products. More than half of the profiles analysed (56.4%) redirect to other websites, mainly Amazon, to sell dietary supplements (which in some cases are repeated across different accounts), through which they may be generating income via the affiliate programme. Many of them feature the same legal disclaimer, which states: “Claims regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration) and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or health condition”. Molina explains that “without a medical diagnosis to justify them, supplements are always unnecessary” and adds that “the advertising claims they make would not even be legal in Spain, where supplements are prohibited from claiming any kind of therapeutic effect”.Also popular, albeit to a lesser extent (30.8%), is content promoting so-called books or PDFs containing recipes or advice on ‘healthy living’, ‘wellbeing’ or ‘spirituality’ (several of which show signs of having been created using AI). The remaining accounts either did not include links (12%)) or sold other products such as serums and souvenirs (2.4%). According to Molina, at the very least, these products may constitute financial fraud, but they may also “cause harm by delaying or preventing effective treatment for their ailments, or even by leading people to believe they may have some kind of condition that has not actually been diagnosed”.<img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805658/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" />"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805658/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" />To direct us to these products, the profiles analysed use various strategies. Some directly include a link to the products or guides they are promoting in their bio. At Maldita.es, we have found that at least 17 of these websites do not meet the basic requirements to operate legally in Spain, such as having a legal notice, a privacy policy and a cookies policy. The absence of this information does not in itself mean that they are fraudulent, but it is a warning sign.On other occasions, users are asked to comment on videos using specific keywords (such as ‘guide’, ‘book’ or ‘heal’) in order to receive the supposed documents. At Maldita.es, we contacted two of the profiles using this technique; when we mentioned those keywords in the comments, they messaged us directly asking us to click on a link, despite not having provided one. There are also users who, rather than linking directly in their bios, use their highlighted stories to link to the sales pages.Some users ask you to comment on their videos, supposedly so they can send you content. But we don’t receive anything. Source: Instagram.Most of these accounts belong to so-called ‘holistic experts’ who offer health adviceAccording to our analysis, the 250 profiles use different personas to convey their messages. The most popular is the ‘holistic’ persona, with 94 accounts: these profiles describe themselves as ‘holistic experts’, ‘holistic wellbeing’ or ‘holistic health’, or have usernames that include this word. They often show their AI-generated avatars in settings that are meant to resemble medical consultation rooms. <img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805530/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" />"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805530/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" />A document from the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality published in 2011 states that, when discussing health, a holistic approach would involve considering the person “as a whole”, integrating “physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental and social aspects” (as proposed by biopsychosocial approaches). However, ‘holistic’ is an adjective typically appropriated by pseudosciences.These accounts, such as HolisticZora (@holistic.zora) and Claire Holloway (@claire.holloway.us), share advice which they claim ‘doctors are forbidden to share’. Both present health issues, such as being unable to lose weight or having bladder control problems, and claim that ‘holistic medicine’ does indeed offer a cure, which, in theory, can be found via the link on their profile.For example, Holistic Zora sells tablets containing “Rhodiola rosea powder extract with salidroside to help combat stress” for $29 (around €25). In a video with 16,200 views and a watermark reading “genAIcontent”, it claims that this supplement can supposedly help reduce back fat by lowering cortisol levels. However, the product’s own Amazon sales page states that this product has not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Claire Holloway’s profile, meanwhile, redirects users to Amazon to sell a book featuring “200 natural solutions to everyday problems” for almost $35 (€30), which she promotes as her own in her highlighted stories. However, it is another author’s name that appears on the book (Marina López) – a book that we have found is being sold by 23 accounts on the platform.Accounts that call themselves “holistic experts” and the products they sell. Source: Instagram.‘Ancestral wisdom’: other accounts use AI-generated images of Asian, Indigenous and Black people to peddle so-called remediesThe second most popular group of these accounts are those that hide behind ‘ancestral wisdom’ to peddle this advice and these unsubstantiated claims. From monks to Jamaican healers, we have found 82 profiles that use typical characteristics of people from racialised communities (mostly elderly people) to share so-called advice based on ancient traditions. As we have already warned on Maldita.es, the most common are depictions of Asian people as ‘senseis’ or ‘Shaolin’ masters. One example of this is the profile of Ming San (@mingsanhealing), who looks like a Tibetan monk: he has 1.2 million followers and his “ancestral wisdom for the mind and body” takes the form of supposed remedies. These include placing cabbage in your socks to relieve pain (the video in which he recommends this has been viewed 2.2 million times).Stereotypes such as African, Indigenous or Indian women also feature. Mama Zola Njeri (@mamazolanjeri) is one example: the account describes her as an ‘African grandmother’ with ‘folk wisdom’ who suggests to her 101,100 followers that they apply cola to their moles to remove them. Meanwhile, Nuna Itta (@nunaitta), who portrays an elderly Iñupiat woman (an indigenous people of Alaska), claims that applying mouthwash to the feet helps to exfoliate them; and Shanti Vaidya (@shantivaidya.ayurveda), supposedly a woman from India, recommends eating a clove of garlic in the morning to kill any bacteria. None of them are real, but these three videos alone have racked up more than 383,600 views and 1,445 comments, many from users who seem to believe that Mama Zola, Nuna and Shanti actually exist.Videos that use “ancestral wisdom” as a pretext to peddle this content. Source: Instagram.From American farmers to elderly Latin American women: how they capitalise on the myth of the wisdom of the eldersThe third most popular type of so-called expert is represented by ‘wise elders’, who feature in 61 of the accounts analysed and who, for the most part, appear in the countryside or in rural settings. Roy Bennet (@farmtruths) is one of them: he is supposedly an elderly American who promises “country wisdom for the mind and body” to his more than 250,000 followers, and whose bio includes a link to “pure beetroot” which “he trusts”: a supplement costing $49 (almost €43). Meanwhile, the Italian-language account Ernesto Salute (@ernestosalute), which uses a profile picture depicting an elderly man sharing “mountain habits and remedies”, has 271 followers. In Portuguese, Seu Augusto (@seuaugusto.oficia), a supposed elderly man who “has lived off the land for over 40 years” and who posts from Brazil to his 62,500 followers. Similar accounts are only found in Spanish and French.But it’s not all about men. Older women also feature, sometimes associated with elderly Latina or Italian women. Take Lucía La Cruz (@luciawellnesstips), for example, “a Latina mother and grandmother living in the United States”, whose bio links to the very same supplement promoted by HolisticZora. She has 52,800 followers and shares tips such as consuming chilli sauce with lemon on an empty stomach to “lose weight” (with 141,000 views). Nonna Sofia (@nonnasofiahealth) posts “holistic health tips from Sardinia” and sells another “detox” supplement on Amazon, this time for $37.99. “You think you need three meals a day, but this is a scam by big corporations to keep you buying food,” she claims in a video with 35,600 views, in which she asserts that in Sardinia (Italy) people “live to be over 100” thanks to fasting.AI-generated videos featuring elderly people to convey wisdom. Source: Instagram.Psychologist Natalia Martín tells Maldita.es that the figure of the “wise grandparent” conveys authority based on life experience and folk wisdom, something which, for certain demographics, can be even more convincing than a healthcare professional: “For example, among people who are sceptical of conventional medicine or who have had bad experiences with the medical system, alternative messages generated by people perceived as more approachable will be prioritised.”Religious figures: the Amish in the United States and nuns and preachers in Spanish as representations of a healthy lifestyleFinally, 13 of the profiles analysed used AI-generated characters associated with religion to lend credibility to their messages. These appear mainly on English and Spanish-language accounts, each with their own distinctive features.On English-language profiles (mostly from the United States), there are depictions of people from the Amish community, who are associated with growing their own food and using alternative and natural medicines. Mary Fisher (@amish.house1) is an account that supposedly represents a ‘99-year-old’ woman who posts about the ‘Amish way of life’. Although the woman does not exist (the most recent posts are labelled ‘AI-generated content’), this does not hinder her success. In her most viral video, with 3.6 million views, she claims that placing an ice cube on the arch of the foot for 3 seconds stops a migraine ‘as it is a connection point with the head’.Meanwhile, Spanish-language accounts focus on figures linked to Catholicism, such as Sor Catalina (@sormariacatalina), a nun who supposedly shares her “remedies and secrets from the convent”, or Fray Lorenzo (@fraylorenzoreflexiones), who shares prayers and sells a “spiritual guide for the soul” promising a ‘step-by-step’ path to inner peace for just 9.95 euros.Screenshots of the @amish.house1 and @sormariacatalina profiles. Source: InstagramThe major danger: accounts posing as doctors, an illegal practice in SpainAmong the 250 profiles we analysed at Maldita.es, we identified 25 which, in addition to falling into the categories mentioned above, identified themselves as healthcare professionals or included indicators that could lead users to mistake them for such professionals. For example, by using the word ‘doctor’ or the abbreviation ‘dr’ in their usernames or bios.Other profiles use elements that may be associated with medicine. One example is the Spanish-language account Felipe Nutrition (@nutritionfelipe), whose description reads: “Cardiology, 10+ years in holistic health” and which has over 714,000 followers. In several of his videos, “Felipe” is shown taking patients’ blood pressure and using a stethoscope or wearing a white coat and gloves. In one video, which has 3.1 million views, he claims that drinking a mixture of cinnamon, vinegar, lemon and turmeric on an empty stomach for three weeks means you “don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on insulin or metformin”, a medicine for type 2 diabetes. He also encourages viewers to buy a yerba mate product available on Amazon (with the warning that it has not been evaluated by the FDA) for $39.99 to boost its effects by “up to 10 times”.Screenshots of profiles and videos that use imagery to present themselves as doctors. Source: Instagram.These 25 accounts have a combined total of over 3.6 million followers, and their videos have been viewed more than 397 million times. Furthermore, three of these profiles, each with over 800,000 followers, display Meta’s blue verification badge, which is supposed to guarantee that their identity is genuine.Emilio José Molina, vice-president of the Association for the Protection of Patients from Pseudo-scientific Therapies, points out that in Spain this type of advertising is prohibited by Royal Decree 1907/1996, which does not allow “the use of testimonials from healthcare professionals, celebrities or real or alleged patients as a means of encouraging consumption”. According to the expert, this is to prevent the public from losing trust in healthcare professionals, something “essential for the proper management of public health in areas such as vaccination campaigns, product alerts, screening programmes and a long list of other initiatives that affect both individual and collective health”.This article features the superpowers of Natalia Martín, a psychologist.Natalia Martín is part of Superpoderosas, a project by Maldita.es that aims to increase the presence of female scientists and experts in public discourse through collaboration in the fight against disinformation.Thanks to your superpowers, knowledge and experience, we can fight lies more effectively. The Maldita.es community is essential to stopping disinformation. Help us in this battle: send us any hoaxes you come across via our WhatsApp service, lend us your superpowers, share our fact-checks and become an Ambassador. Methodology For this article, Maldita.es has compiled 250 Instagram accounts that use artificial intelligence to disseminate health-related content. Some of these profiles appeared organically in the platform’s feed, whilst others were added following a search amongst the followers of the first accounts compiled. The accounts were created between December 2014 and June 2026 and, at the time of data collection (carried out between 20 and 21 July 2026), had more than 53.7 million followers and more than 45,600 posts. As of 27 July, some of the profiles had been removed from the platform. For each of these accounts, the following information has been compiled: link (also archived or accompanied by a screenshot where this was not possible), username and profile name (which need not match the username and may be shared with other users), platform ID (extracted using a tool from My OSINT Tools), whether or not the account was verified, the number of times the name has been changed, the country recorded by the platform (which explains on its website that this is determined based on the account’s activity), the bio text, the creation date, number of posts, followers and users followed. A check was also carried out for each and every one of the 250 accounts to see whether there were other profiles with the same characteristics amongst those they followed. To facilitate further analysis, the profiles in the database have been categorised as “Wise elders” (accounts showing older people giving health advice in different contexts), “Holistic” (those profiles that use this term or a similar one in their bio or that set their content in supposed medical consultations), “Religious/preachers” (accounts whose protagonists pretended to be nuns, priests or members of the Amish community) and “Ancestral wisdom” (depictions of communities associated with these stereotypes, such as “African”, “monk” or “Indian” people linked to supposed “ancestral knowledge”). The links available both in the biography and in other sections of the profile, such as featured stories, have also been compiled and analysed. In total, 224 of the 250 accounts had a visible URL through which they were selling some kind of product on various external platforms. A foreign VPN (Virtual Private Network) was used to access those products not available in Spain. To determine whether content was generated using artificial intelligence, we used Gemini, Google’s AI, which is capable of detecting the SynthID watermark – a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models. Furthermore, some content featured visible watermarks from various video-generation tools. We also checked for the presence of the ‘AI Information’ label that identifies synthetic content on Meta’s social media platforms, and reviewed whether the descriptions identified the creator as an ‘AI creator’ or similar terms. The posts by the users analysed displayed several of the typical tell-tale signs of AI-generated videos, such as impossible figures, blurred backgrounds and unintelligible text. Our observations have enabled us to confirm that there are more accounts with these characteristics available on the platform, so whilst the sample included in this article does not cover all profiles, it does represent the phenomenon. If you have any queries, please contact us at investigacion@maldita.es "> Methodology For this article, Maldita.es has compiled 250 Instagram accounts that use artificial intelligence to disseminate health-related content. Some of these profiles appeared organically in the platform’s feed, whilst others were added following a search amongst the followers of the first accounts compiled. The accounts were created between December 2014 and June 2026 and, at the time of data collection (carried out between 20 and 21 July 2026), had more than 53.7 million followers and more than 45,600 posts. As of 27 July, some of the profiles had been removed from the platform. For each of these accounts, the following information has been compiled: link (also archived or accompanied by a screenshot where this was not possible), username and profile name (which need not match the username and may be shared with other users), platform ID (extracted using a tool from My OSINT Tools), whether or not the account was verified, the number of times the name has been changed, the country recorded by the platform (which explains on its website that this is determined based on the account’s activity), the bio text, the creation date, number of posts, followers and users followed. A check was also carried out for each and every one of the 250 accounts to see whether there were other profiles with the same characteristics amongst those they followed. To facilitate further analysis, the profiles in the database have been categorised as “Wise elders” (accounts showing older people giving health advice in different contexts), “Holistic” (those profiles that use this term or a similar one in their bio or that set their content in supposed medical consultations), “Religious/preachers” (accounts whose protagonists pretended to be nuns, priests or members of the Amish community) and “Ancestral wisdom” (depictions of communities associated with these stereotypes, such as “African”, “monk” or “Indian” people linked to supposed “ancestral knowledge”). The links available both in the biography and in other sections of the profile, such as featured stories, have also been compiled and analysed. In total, 224 of the 250 accounts had a visible URL through which they were selling some kind of product on various external platforms. A foreign VPN (Virtual Private Network) was used to access those products not available in Spain. To determine whether content was generated using artificial intelligence, we used Gemini, Google’s AI, which is capable of detecting the SynthID watermark – a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models. Furthermore, some content featured visible watermarks from various video-generation tools. We also checked for the presence of the ‘AI Information’ label that identifies synthetic content on Meta’s social media platforms, and reviewed whether the descriptions identified the creator as an ‘AI creator’ or similar terms. The posts by the users analysed displayed several of the typical tell-tale signs of AI-generated videos, such as impossible figures, blurred backgrounds and unintelligible text. Our observations have enabled us to confirm that there are more accounts with these characteristics available on the platform, so whilst the sample included in this article does not cover all profiles, it does represent the phenomenon. If you have any queries, please contact us at investigacion@maldita.es
<img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805445/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="cards visualization" />"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805445/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="cards visualization" />Over 45,600 posts: this is how the AI slop machine churns out so-called health advice“Did you know you can ‘unblock’ your ears in just five minutes?” asks Emilio Vega (@vega.naturalmed), a so-called “content creator specialising in natural medicine”, as he pours a mixture of coconut oil and hydrogen peroxide into an ear, which immediately begins to expel debris and foam. The video has been viewed more than 6.5 million times, and users have left comments such as “thank you, doctor” and “what a great cleaning method”. Although not every user who consumes his content seems to be aware of it, Emilio does not exist: the post bears Meta’s “AI Information” label, and text accompanying the video reads “synthetic performer-ad”.In those 45,600 posts from 250 Instagram profiles analysed, both Meta’s synthetic content labels and these watermarks appear repeatedly. Some directly identify themselves as “AI influencers” or display inconsistencies typical of AI-generated content, such as unintelligible text and impossible figures (limbs appearing out of nowhere or misshapen body parts). But none of this seems to stop them going viral. Natalia Martín, psychologist, explains that even when there are clear signs that the character is not real, the message can still be perceived as credible: “If the message aligns with the recipient’s existing beliefs, confirmation bias makes it easier for us to accept it”.Videos and accounts label their content as AI-generated. Source: Instagram.The use of artificial intelligence allows these accounts to create content on a large scale: they post several times a day, and some profiles have accumulated hundreds or even thousands of videos in total. In this way, they have created a machine churning out ‘AI slop’: low-quality content created with AI that is often eye-catching, repetitive and incoherent, and is mass-produced to go viral and generate revenue. Brains infested with worms, feet with holes oozing pus, and a severed torso from which earthworms emerge are just some of the grotesque scenes found in this content, designed to grab users’ attention.Many videos feature grotesque or eye-catching scenes to grab users’ attention. Source: Instagram.“[AI Slop] Clutters media ecosystems with information overload; it is digital rubbish and pollution, which hides legitimate, high-quality content (or at least makes it difficult to find),” Javi Cantón, a researcher in the Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Granada, warned Maldita.es about this type of content. But when it comes to health, the risks can be even greater: “The main danger of these accounts is that they misinform the public about health matters. This, in itself, already infringes constitutional rights such as the consumer’s right to accurate information and the special protection of the health of any member of the public who comes across such content,” Emilio José Molina, vice-president of the Association for the Protection of Patients from Pseudo-Scientific Therapies (APETP), told Maldita.es.76.8% of the accounts analysed were created during the first half of 2026 and are active in at least seven languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German and Russian). The most popular is English, used by 61.2% of the profiles analysed, which is also the most widely spoken language in the world. Although these accounts operate from different countries, more than half (52.8%) are based in the United States. Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE "> Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE A link in the bio or a ‘comment guide’: the techniques they use to direct you to Amazon and sell you supplements and booksThe aim of this network is, for the most part, to direct us to other websites to sell us products. More than half of the profiles analysed (56.4%) redirect to other websites, mainly Amazon, to sell dietary supplements (which in some cases are repeated across different accounts), through which they may be generating income via the affiliate programme. Many of them feature the same legal disclaimer, which states: “Claims regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration) and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or health condition”. Molina explains that “without a medical diagnosis to justify them, supplements are always unnecessary” and adds that “the advertising claims they make would not even be legal in Spain, where supplements are prohibited from claiming any kind of therapeutic effect”.Also popular, albeit to a lesser extent (30.8%), is content promoting so-called books or PDFs containing recipes or advice on ‘healthy living’, ‘wellbeing’ or ‘spirituality’ (several of which show signs of having been created using AI). The remaining accounts either did not include links (12%)) or sold other products such as serums and souvenirs (2.4%). According to Molina, at the very least, these products may constitute financial fraud, but they may also “cause harm by delaying or preventing effective treatment for their ailments, or even by leading people to believe they may have some kind of condition that has not actually been diagnosed”.<img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805658/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" />"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805658/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" />To direct us to these products, the profiles analysed use various strategies. Some directly include a link to the products or guides they are promoting in their bio. At Maldita.es, we have found that at least 17 of these websites do not meet the basic requirements to operate legally in Spain, such as having a legal notice, a privacy policy and a cookies policy. The absence of this information does not in itself mean that they are fraudulent, but it is a warning sign.On other occasions, users are asked to comment on videos using specific keywords (such as ‘guide’, ‘book’ or ‘heal’) in order to receive the supposed documents. At Maldita.es, we contacted two of the profiles using this technique; when we mentioned those keywords in the comments, they messaged us directly asking us to click on a link, despite not having provided one. There are also users who, rather than linking directly in their bios, use their highlighted stories to link to the sales pages.Some users ask you to comment on their videos, supposedly so they can send you content. But we don’t receive anything. Source: Instagram.Most of these accounts belong to so-called ‘holistic experts’ who offer health adviceAccording to our analysis, the 250 profiles use different personas to convey their messages. The most popular is the ‘holistic’ persona, with 94 accounts: these profiles describe themselves as ‘holistic experts’, ‘holistic wellbeing’ or ‘holistic health’, or have usernames that include this word. They often show their AI-generated avatars in settings that are meant to resemble medical consultation rooms. <img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805530/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" />"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29805530/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="chart visualization" />A document from the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality published in 2011 states that, when discussing health, a holistic approach would involve considering the person “as a whole”, integrating “physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental and social aspects” (as proposed by biopsychosocial approaches). However, ‘holistic’ is an adjective typically appropriated by pseudosciences.These accounts, such as HolisticZora (@holistic.zora) and Claire Holloway (@claire.holloway.us), share advice which they claim ‘doctors are forbidden to share’. Both present health issues, such as being unable to lose weight or having bladder control problems, and claim that ‘holistic medicine’ does indeed offer a cure, which, in theory, can be found via the link on their profile.For example, Holistic Zora sells tablets containing “Rhodiola rosea powder extract with salidroside to help combat stress” for $29 (around €25). In a video with 16,200 views and a watermark reading “genAIcontent”, it claims that this supplement can supposedly help reduce back fat by lowering cortisol levels. However, the product’s own Amazon sales page states that this product has not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Claire Holloway’s profile, meanwhile, redirects users to Amazon to sell a book featuring “200 natural solutions to everyday problems” for almost $35 (€30), which she promotes as her own in her highlighted stories. However, it is another author’s name that appears on the book (Marina López) – a book that we have found is being sold by 23 accounts on the platform.Accounts that call themselves “holistic experts” and the products they sell. Source: Instagram.‘Ancestral wisdom’: other accounts use AI-generated images of Asian, Indigenous and Black people to peddle so-called remediesThe second most popular group of these accounts are those that hide behind ‘ancestral wisdom’ to peddle this advice and these unsubstantiated claims. From monks to Jamaican healers, we have found 82 profiles that use typical characteristics of people from racialised communities (mostly elderly people) to share so-called advice based on ancient traditions. As we have already warned on Maldita.es, the most common are depictions of Asian people as ‘senseis’ or ‘Shaolin’ masters. One example of this is the profile of Ming San (@mingsanhealing), who looks like a Tibetan monk: he has 1.2 million followers and his “ancestral wisdom for the mind and body” takes the form of supposed remedies. These include placing cabbage in your socks to relieve pain (the video in which he recommends this has been viewed 2.2 million times).Stereotypes such as African, Indigenous or Indian women also feature. Mama Zola Njeri (@mamazolanjeri) is one example: the account describes her as an ‘African grandmother’ with ‘folk wisdom’ who suggests to her 101,100 followers that they apply cola to their moles to remove them. Meanwhile, Nuna Itta (@nunaitta), who portrays an elderly Iñupiat woman (an indigenous people of Alaska), claims that applying mouthwash to the feet helps to exfoliate them; and Shanti Vaidya (@shantivaidya.ayurveda), supposedly a woman from India, recommends eating a clove of garlic in the morning to kill any bacteria. None of them are real, but these three videos alone have racked up more than 383,600 views and 1,445 comments, many from users who seem to believe that Mama Zola, Nuna and Shanti actually exist.Videos that use “ancestral wisdom” as a pretext to peddle this content. Source: Instagram.From American farmers to elderly Latin American women: how they capitalise on the myth of the wisdom of the eldersThe third most popular type of so-called expert is represented by ‘wise elders’, who feature in 61 of the accounts analysed and who, for the most part, appear in the countryside or in rural settings. Roy Bennet (@farmtruths) is one of them: he is supposedly an elderly American who promises “country wisdom for the mind and body” to his more than 250,000 followers, and whose bio includes a link to “pure beetroot” which “he trusts”: a supplement costing $49 (almost €43). Meanwhile, the Italian-language account Ernesto Salute (@ernestosalute), which uses a profile picture depicting an elderly man sharing “mountain habits and remedies”, has 271 followers. In Portuguese, Seu Augusto (@seuaugusto.oficia), a supposed elderly man who “has lived off the land for over 40 years” and who posts from Brazil to his 62,500 followers. Similar accounts are only found in Spanish and French.But it’s not all about men. Older women also feature, sometimes associated with elderly Latina or Italian women. Take Lucía La Cruz (@luciawellnesstips), for example, “a Latina mother and grandmother living in the United States”, whose bio links to the very same supplement promoted by HolisticZora. She has 52,800 followers and shares tips such as consuming chilli sauce with lemon on an empty stomach to “lose weight” (with 141,000 views). Nonna Sofia (@nonnasofiahealth) posts “holistic health tips from Sardinia” and sells another “detox” supplement on Amazon, this time for $37.99. “You think you need three meals a day, but this is a scam by big corporations to keep you buying food,” she claims in a video with 35,600 views, in which she asserts that in Sardinia (Italy) people “live to be over 100” thanks to fasting.AI-generated videos featuring elderly people to convey wisdom. Source: Instagram.Psychologist Natalia Martín tells Maldita.es that the figure of the “wise grandparent” conveys authority based on life experience and folk wisdom, something which, for certain demographics, can be even more convincing than a healthcare professional: “For example, among people who are sceptical of conventional medicine or who have had bad experiences with the medical system, alternative messages generated by people perceived as more approachable will be prioritised.”Religious figures: the Amish in the United States and nuns and preachers in Spanish as representations of a healthy lifestyleFinally, 13 of the profiles analysed used AI-generated characters associated with religion to lend credibility to their messages. These appear mainly on English and Spanish-language accounts, each with their own distinctive features.On English-language profiles (mostly from the United States), there are depictions of people from the Amish community, who are associated with growing their own food and using alternative and natural medicines. Mary Fisher (@amish.house1) is an account that supposedly represents a ‘99-year-old’ woman who posts about the ‘Amish way of life’. Although the woman does not exist (the most recent posts are labelled ‘AI-generated content’), this does not hinder her success. In her most viral video, with 3.6 million views, she claims that placing an ice cube on the arch of the foot for 3 seconds stops a migraine ‘as it is a connection point with the head’.Meanwhile, Spanish-language accounts focus on figures linked to Catholicism, such as Sor Catalina (@sormariacatalina), a nun who supposedly shares her “remedies and secrets from the convent”, or Fray Lorenzo (@fraylorenzoreflexiones), who shares prayers and sells a “spiritual guide for the soul” promising a ‘step-by-step’ path to inner peace for just 9.95 euros.Screenshots of the @amish.house1 and @sormariacatalina profiles. Source: InstagramThe major danger: accounts posing as doctors, an illegal practice in SpainAmong the 250 profiles we analysed at Maldita.es, we identified 25 which, in addition to falling into the categories mentioned above, identified themselves as healthcare professionals or included indicators that could lead users to mistake them for such professionals. For example, by using the word ‘doctor’ or the abbreviation ‘dr’ in their usernames or bios.Other profiles use elements that may be associated with medicine. One example is the Spanish-language account Felipe Nutrition (@nutritionfelipe), whose description reads: “Cardiology, 10+ years in holistic health” and which has over 714,000 followers. In several of his videos, “Felipe” is shown taking patients’ blood pressure and using a stethoscope or wearing a white coat and gloves. In one video, which has 3.1 million views, he claims that drinking a mixture of cinnamon, vinegar, lemon and turmeric on an empty stomach for three weeks means you “don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on insulin or metformin”, a medicine for type 2 diabetes. He also encourages viewers to buy a yerba mate product available on Amazon (with the warning that it has not been evaluated by the FDA) for $39.99 to boost its effects by “up to 10 times”.Screenshots of profiles and videos that use imagery to present themselves as doctors. Source: Instagram.These 25 accounts have a combined total of over 3.6 million followers, and their videos have been viewed more than 397 million times. Furthermore, three of these profiles, each with over 800,000 followers, display Meta’s blue verification badge, which is supposed to guarantee that their identity is genuine.Emilio José Molina, vice-president of the Association for the Protection of Patients from Pseudo-scientific Therapies, points out that in Spain this type of advertising is prohibited by Royal Decree 1907/1996, which does not allow “the use of testimonials from healthcare professionals, celebrities or real or alleged patients as a means of encouraging consumption”. According to the expert, this is to prevent the public from losing trust in healthcare professionals, something “essential for the proper management of public health in areas such as vaccination campaigns, product alerts, screening programmes and a long list of other initiatives that affect both individual and collective health”.This article features the superpowers of Natalia Martín, a psychologist.Natalia Martín is part of Superpoderosas, a project by Maldita.es that aims to increase the presence of female scientists and experts in public discourse through collaboration in the fight against disinformation.Thanks to your superpowers, knowledge and experience, we can fight lies more effectively. The Maldita.es community is essential to stopping disinformation. Help us in this battle: send us any hoaxes you come across via our WhatsApp service, lend us your superpowers, share our fact-checks and become an Ambassador. Methodology For this article, Maldita.es has compiled 250 Instagram accounts that use artificial intelligence to disseminate health-related content. Some of these profiles appeared organically in the platform’s feed, whilst others were added following a search amongst the followers of the first accounts compiled. The accounts were created between December 2014 and June 2026 and, at the time of data collection (carried out between 20 and 21 July 2026), had more than 53.7 million followers and more than 45,600 posts. As of 27 July, some of the profiles had been removed from the platform. For each of these accounts, the following information has been compiled: link (also archived or accompanied by a screenshot where this was not possible), username and profile name (which need not match the username and may be shared with other users), platform ID (extracted using a tool from My OSINT Tools), whether or not the account was verified, the number of times the name has been changed, the country recorded by the platform (which explains on its website that this is determined based on the account’s activity), the bio text, the creation date, number of posts, followers and users followed. A check was also carried out for each and every one of the 250 accounts to see whether there were other profiles with the same characteristics amongst those they followed. To facilitate further analysis, the profiles in the database have been categorised as “Wise elders” (accounts showing older people giving health advice in different contexts), “Holistic” (those profiles that use this term or a similar one in their bio or that set their content in supposed medical consultations), “Religious/preachers” (accounts whose protagonists pretended to be nuns, priests or members of the Amish community) and “Ancestral wisdom” (depictions of communities associated with these stereotypes, such as “African”, “monk” or “Indian” people linked to supposed “ancestral knowledge”). The links available both in the biography and in other sections of the profile, such as featured stories, have also been compiled and analysed. In total, 224 of the 250 accounts had a visible URL through which they were selling some kind of product on various external platforms. A foreign VPN (Virtual Private Network) was used to access those products not available in Spain. To determine whether content was generated using artificial intelligence, we used Gemini, Google’s AI, which is capable of detecting the SynthID watermark – a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models. Furthermore, some content featured visible watermarks from various video-generation tools. We also checked for the presence of the ‘AI Information’ label that identifies synthetic content on Meta’s social media platforms, and reviewed whether the descriptions identified the creator as an ‘AI creator’ or similar terms. The posts by the users analysed displayed several of the typical tell-tale signs of AI-generated videos, such as impossible figures, blurred backgrounds and unintelligible text. Our observations have enabled us to confirm that there are more accounts with these characteristics available on the platform, so whilst the sample included in this article does not cover all profiles, it does represent the phenomenon. If you have any queries, please contact us at investigacion@maldita.es "> Methodology For this article, Maldita.es has compiled 250 Instagram accounts that use artificial intelligence to disseminate health-related content. Some of these profiles appeared organically in the platform’s feed, whilst others were added following a search amongst the followers of the first accounts compiled. The accounts were created between December 2014 and June 2026 and, at the time of data collection (carried out between 20 and 21 July 2026), had more than 53.7 million followers and more than 45,600 posts. As of 27 July, some of the profiles had been removed from the platform. For each of these accounts, the following information has been compiled: link (also archived or accompanied by a screenshot where this was not possible), username and profile name (which need not match the username and may be shared with other users), platform ID (extracted using a tool from My OSINT Tools), whether or not the account was verified, the number of times the name has been changed, the country recorded by the platform (which explains on its website that this is determined based on the account’s activity), the bio text, the creation date, number of posts, followers and users followed. A check was also carried out for each and every one of the 250 accounts to see whether there were other profiles with the same characteristics amongst those they followed. To facilitate further analysis, the profiles in the database have been categorised as “Wise elders” (accounts showing older people giving health advice in different contexts), “Holistic” (those profiles that use this term or a similar one in their bio or that set their content in supposed medical consultations), “Religious/preachers” (accounts whose protagonists pretended to be nuns, priests or members of the Amish community) and “Ancestral wisdom” (depictions of communities associated with these stereotypes, such as “African”, “monk” or “Indian” people linked to supposed “ancestral knowledge”). The links available both in the biography and in other sections of the profile, such as featured stories, have also been compiled and analysed. In total, 224 of the 250 accounts had a visible URL through which they were selling some kind of product on various external platforms. A foreign VPN (Virtual Private Network) was used to access those products not available in Spain. To determine whether content was generated using artificial intelligence, we used Gemini, Google’s AI, which is capable of detecting the SynthID watermark – a technology imperceptible to the human eye that identifies content generated using its AI models. Furthermore, some content featured visible watermarks from various video-generation tools. We also checked for the presence of the ‘AI Information’ label that identifies synthetic content on Meta’s social media platforms, and reviewed whether the descriptions identified the creator as an ‘AI creator’ or similar terms. The posts by the users analysed displayed several of the typical tell-tale signs of AI-generated videos, such as impossible figures, blurred backgrounds and unintelligible text. Our observations have enabled us to confirm that there are more accounts with these characteristics available on the platform, so whilst the sample included in this article does not cover all profiles, it does represent the phenomenon. If you have any queries, please contact us at investigacion@maldita.es
11 minutes
In a video that has garnered over 49 million views on Instagram, "doctor" Huang explains how to "dissolve" kidney stones with coconut water, olive oil, and lemon juice in just three days. Needless to say, the remedy is fake, but this doctor doesn't exist either. His videos are generated with artificial intelligence, just like those from 25 other Instagram accounts that call themselves “doctor” or “dr.”and that usually appear wearing a white coat and a stethoscope, providing medical advice. The accounts have amassed over 3.6 million followers as of July 2026, even though 96% of them are less than a year old.In Spain article 403 of the Penal Code punishes those who perform "acts proper" to a profession such as the medical one without holding the corresponding degree, and it punishes more severely those who publicly claim to be doctors without possessing the qualifications. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has assessed in its rulings that some convicted of this crime had taken advantage of the deception by creating "the widespread belief" that they were doctors through a "staged act". This is illegal in real life, and also illegal online.Among the accounts identified by Maldita.es is common to see them in a consultation room, next to a patient on a stretcher, or carrying items traditionally associated with healthcare professionals.The AI-generated doctor featured in the videos of the Felipe Nutrition account, for example, wears a stethoscope in his profile picture and sometimes a white coat and sterile gloves. The first line of his Instagram bio is "cardiology," and his advice in Spanish has over 650,000 followers.<img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29760144/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="cards visualization" />"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29760144/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="cards visualization" />64% of these “doctors” sell products on their Instagram profileIn his account description, Felipe Nutrition includes links to his "favorite remedy," which is sold on Amazon. This is the same thing that other AI-generated profiles like Dr. Kendrick Harris or Dr. Marcus Wolfe, but in this case what they sell is "Yerba Magic", a product described as a "super instant powder drink" that provides "clean energy, mental clarity, and gut health." The product is promoted by several of these accounts (20%) but it is by no means the only thing they sell."Doctor Salori”, for example, promotes to his more than 700,000 followers a "superfood" of "bee bread formula for energy, immunity and vitality support”, whose purported benefits for the immune system are not supported by scientific evidence. On Amazon's website, almost all products advertised by these accounts carry a warning which says they have not been evaluated by health authorities and that they "do not intend to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition”.Legal disclaimer Amazon uses of the productsThe vast majority of products promoted by the accounts are different types of food supplements, although some also promote their own "advice" books and specific products such as serums against baldness. Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE "> Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE What does Instagram do? Some accounts even show Meta’s blue verification badgePracticing medicine without a license is a crime in Spain, as is advertising products "with a purported health purpose (...) that claim to provide testimonies from healthcare professionals”. Additionally, Instagram has been designated as a “very large online platform” in the European Union, which means it has a legal obligation to have effective measures in place to mitigate systemic risks such as the dissemination of illegal content on throughout its service, or the real or foreseeable negative effects it might have on the protection of health or consumer rights.If that weren't enough, Meta's own rules for its platforms, including Instagram, state that Instagram will restrict accounts that make a “deceptive representation of identity to deceive or confuse”. That rule doesn't seem to be enforced, since three of the accounts we monitored even display the blue check that should signify that the real identity of the users has been verified. In Maldita.es we have already investigated how Meta verified accounts that do not belong to the people they claim to represent and are used for scams and other deceptions. In late 2025, the European Commission imposed a fine of 120 million euros to X for not complying with the Digital Services Regulation. Specifically, for the misleading design of its "blue checks". The investigation concluded that X did not meaningfully verify who was behind each account that obtained the insignia, even through paid subscriptions.The blue verification badge is not the only strategic use that the 25 accounts have made of the platform's resources. Their reach is impossible to achieve without the amplification offered by the platform through its recommendation algorithms. Several have a number of views more than 200 times greater than their number of followers. They also make continuous calls for interaction, offering rewards to users who comment on their videos. That is a common technique to get the algorithms to provide more visibility.If the platform wanted to design an effective risk reduction strategy for this type of phenomenon, there would be no shortage of places to start: perhaps special care should be taken with usernames that have formal elements such as “doctor” or “dr.”, or with avatars that display elements associated with health professionals such as stethoscopes and white robes. Controls could also be improved over accounts that advertise through links to third-party platforms that issue warnings about products saying they have not undergone health checks and that “they do not intend to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition.”The accounts we tracked in this part of the investigation share many of these indicators and others that platforms could easily detect. They all deal with a particularly sensitive topic like health and constantly publish AI-generated content. Also, although 96% of the 25 accounts analyzed are less than a year old, 44% have already changed their name at least once, and the content some others publish make it impossible for them to belong to a real doctor.The “Dr. Marlon Campbell” account changing its appearance over the course of six monthsThe account now belonging to “Dr. Marlon Campbell” promotes a brand of dietary supplements, began by posting videos featuring a lemon dressed in a white coat and surgical scrubs. It then transitioned to a doctor with Asian features and is now an American with African American features. Information published by Meta reveals that the account has changed its name three times since January, but Instagram doesn't allow users to see the specific names it used before.
In a video that has garnered over 49 million views on Instagram, "doctor" Huang explains how to "dissolve" kidney stones with coconut water, olive oil, and lemon juice in just three days. Needless to say, the remedy is fake, but this doctor doesn't exist either. His videos are generated with artificial intelligence, just like those from 25 other Instagram accounts that call themselves “doctor” or “dr.”and that usually appear wearing a white coat and a stethoscope, providing medical advice. The accounts have amassed over 3.6 million followers as of July 2026, even though 96% of them are less than a year old.In Spain article 403 of the Penal Code punishes those who perform "acts proper" to a profession such as the medical one without holding the corresponding degree, and it punishes more severely those who publicly claim to be doctors without possessing the qualifications. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has assessed in its rulings that some convicted of this crime had taken advantage of the deception by creating "the widespread belief" that they were doctors through a "staged act". This is illegal in real life, and also illegal online.Among the accounts identified by Maldita.es is common to see them in a consultation room, next to a patient on a stretcher, or carrying items traditionally associated with healthcare professionals.The AI-generated doctor featured in the videos of the Felipe Nutrition account, for example, wears a stethoscope in his profile picture and sometimes a white coat and sterile gloves. The first line of his Instagram bio is "cardiology," and his advice in Spanish has over 650,000 followers.<img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29760144/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="cards visualization" />"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29760144/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="cards visualization" />64% of these “doctors” sell products on their Instagram profileIn his account description, Felipe Nutrition includes links to his "favorite remedy," which is sold on Amazon. This is the same thing that other AI-generated profiles like Dr. Kendrick Harris or Dr. Marcus Wolfe, but in this case what they sell is "Yerba Magic", a product described as a "super instant powder drink" that provides "clean energy, mental clarity, and gut health." The product is promoted by several of these accounts (20%) but it is by no means the only thing they sell."Doctor Salori”, for example, promotes to his more than 700,000 followers a "superfood" of "bee bread formula for energy, immunity and vitality support”, whose purported benefits for the immune system are not supported by scientific evidence. On Amazon's website, almost all products advertised by these accounts carry a warning which says they have not been evaluated by health authorities and that they "do not intend to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition”.Legal disclaimer Amazon uses of the productsThe vast majority of products promoted by the accounts are different types of food supplements, although some also promote their own "advice" books and specific products such as serums against baldness. Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE "> Social Media doesn't care. We do. Help us fight their indifference. DONATE What does Instagram do? Some accounts even show Meta’s blue verification badgePracticing medicine without a license is a crime in Spain, as is advertising products "with a purported health purpose (...) that claim to provide testimonies from healthcare professionals”. Additionally, Instagram has been designated as a “very large online platform” in the European Union, which means it has a legal obligation to have effective measures in place to mitigate systemic risks such as the dissemination of illegal content on throughout its service, or the real or foreseeable negative effects it might have on the protection of health or consumer rights.If that weren't enough, Meta's own rules for its platforms, including Instagram, state that Instagram will restrict accounts that make a “deceptive representation of identity to deceive or confuse”. That rule doesn't seem to be enforced, since three of the accounts we monitored even display the blue check that should signify that the real identity of the users has been verified. In Maldita.es we have already investigated how Meta verified accounts that do not belong to the people they claim to represent and are used for scams and other deceptions. In late 2025, the European Commission imposed a fine of 120 million euros to X for not complying with the Digital Services Regulation. Specifically, for the misleading design of its "blue checks". The investigation concluded that X did not meaningfully verify who was behind each account that obtained the insignia, even through paid subscriptions.The blue verification badge is not the only strategic use that the 25 accounts have made of the platform's resources. Their reach is impossible to achieve without the amplification offered by the platform through its recommendation algorithms. Several have a number of views more than 200 times greater than their number of followers. They also make continuous calls for interaction, offering rewards to users who comment on their videos. That is a common technique to get the algorithms to provide more visibility.If the platform wanted to design an effective risk reduction strategy for this type of phenomenon, there would be no shortage of places to start: perhaps special care should be taken with usernames that have formal elements such as “doctor” or “dr.”, or with avatars that display elements associated with health professionals such as stethoscopes and white robes. Controls could also be improved over accounts that advertise through links to third-party platforms that issue warnings about products saying they have not undergone health checks and that “they do not intend to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition.”The accounts we tracked in this part of the investigation share many of these indicators and others that platforms could easily detect. They all deal with a particularly sensitive topic like health and constantly publish AI-generated content. Also, although 96% of the 25 accounts analyzed are less than a year old, 44% have already changed their name at least once, and the content some others publish make it impossible for them to belong to a real doctor.The “Dr. Marlon Campbell” account changing its appearance over the course of six monthsThe account now belonging to “Dr. Marlon Campbell” promotes a brand of dietary supplements, began by posting videos featuring a lemon dressed in a white coat and surgical scrubs. It then transitioned to a doctor with Asian features and is now an American with African American features. Information published by Meta reveals that the account has changed its name three times since January, but Instagram doesn't allow users to see the specific names it used before.
11 minutes
On an Instagram Reel, a Siberian village healer by the name of Baba Matryona offers a cure for high blood pressure. “Follow me and type in the words blood pressure in the comments”, she says, “I will show you a natural, science-backed way that people are using to reverse this for good.” Her bio links to an Amazon storefront selling Jupi, a hydration and wellness powder whose own product page states that it is "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition." Baba Matryona has a blue check next to her name indicating that the identity has been verified by Meta, and accumulates more than 6 million views on her videos. But she’s not a real person, she’s an AI persona.This is one of a total of 25 verified Instagram accounts, identified by Fundación Maldita.es, that present AI-generated people as sources of health advice and use them to sell supplements on Amazon and e-books about “holistic” cures. The remedies they promote are offered as treatments for kidney disease, weight gain and tooth discolouration, among other ailments. None of the creators is a real person but all of them have a Meta Verified blue check next to their name, a service that Meta offers that signals authenticity and is allegedly granted on the basis of having checked it represents a real person.A problem at scale: 5 million subscribers and 389 million viewsMeta openly markets the blue check as something that helps creators “build more confidence with new audiences” and promises “search optimisation” and a “prioritization and increased visibility across some surfaces”. This not only makes it more likely that users will place more trust on these accounts and their misleading health advice but it also means that the content is more likely to appear when searching for health advice on the platform. In fact, the numbers speak for themselves. Just 25 accounts accumulate more than five million subscribers and 389 million views.Meta's Authentic Identity Representation policy provides that accounts engaging in identity misrepresentation to mislead or deceive others will be restricted or disabled. The verified badge is one of the available mechanisms intended to ward off that risk on the platform or at the very least to give a signal of what accounts a user can reasonably trust. To obtain a badge, subscribers are ordinarily required to submit images of a valid photo ID, the profile name must correspond to their legal name and the profile picture must show the subscriber's face in order to establish that the account is true to the person behind it. For these really popular accounts, this was not the case.The policy does leave one opening. In certain cases, eligible users "may be verified using your activity across Meta products, such as name tenure and profile completeness, including name and picture." This is something a synthetic account, with matching profiles in Threads and Facebook, as a majority of the accounts we found had, could very well achieve. The result is a grey area in which the identity requirement could be satisfied without providing an ID, which makes this functionality readily available to actors such as the ones we have studied.A coordinated campaign that goes against Instagram and Amazon’s rulesThese 25 accounts show signs of coordination. They follow the same template, posing as a holistic doctor or a healer, a profile picture of the AI character and a bio along the same lines, one that promises natural remedies and links out to a product page. #carrusel-inves-ia-instagram { max-width: 800px; margin: 2rem auto; font-family: system-ui, sans-serif; } .titulo-carrusel { color: #000; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0.8rem; padding-left: 4px; } #carrusel-mini { overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 100%; height: 260px; /* Fondo Instagram */ background: #c13584; border-radius: 14px; border: 1px solid rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.25); box-shadow: 0 10px 30px rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.35); } /* Degradados laterales */ #carrusel-mini::before, #carrusel-mini::after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 60px; height: 100%; z-index: 2; pointer-events: none; } #carrusel-mini::before { left: 0; background: linear-gradient(to right, #c13584, transparent); } #carrusel-mini::after { right: 0; background: linear-gradient(to left, #c13584, transparent); } .carrusel-track { display: flex; width: max-content; height: 100%; align-items: center; animation: carruselScroll 45s linear infinite; will-change: transform; } #carrusel-mini img { height: 100%; width: auto; object-fit: cover; margin: 0 8px; border-radius: 10px; flex-shrink: 0; border: 1px solid rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.2); transition: transform 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease; } #carrusel-mini img:hover { transform: scale(1.08); box-shadow: 0 8px 20px rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.35); } #carrusel-mini:hover .carrusel-track { animation-play-state: paused; } @keyframes carruselScroll { from { transform: translateX(0); } to { transform: translateX(-50%); } } "> #carrusel-inves-ia-instagram { max-width: 800px; margin: 2rem auto; font-family: system-ui, sans-serif; } .titulo-carrusel { color: #000; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0.8rem; padding-left: 4px; } #carrusel-mini { overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 100%; height: 260px; /* Fondo Instagram */ background: #c13584; border-radius: 14px; border: 1px solid rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.25); box-shadow: 0 10px 30px rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.35); } /* Degradados laterales */ #carrusel-mini::before, #carrusel-mini::after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 60px; height: 100%; z-index: 2; pointer-events: none; } #carrusel-mini::before { left: 0; background: linear-gradient(to right, #c13584, transparent); } #carrusel-mini::after { right: 0; background: linear-gradient(to left, #c13584, transparent); } .carrusel-track { display: flex; width: max-content; height: 100%; align-items: center; animation: carruselScroll 45s linear infinite; will-change: transform; } #carrusel-mini img { height: 100%; width: auto; object-fit: cover; margin: 0 8px; border-radius: 10px; flex-shrink: 0; border: 1px solid rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.2); transition: transform 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease; } #carrusel-mini img:hover { transform: scale(1.08); box-shadow: 0 8px 20px rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.35); } #carrusel-mini:hover .carrusel-track { animation-play-state: paused; } @keyframes carruselScroll { from { transform: translateX(0); } to { transform: translateX(-50%); } } If one analyses these links, one can see they use Amazon associates tags, specific codes linked to the different profiles that pay a commission on each sale routed through it, meaning these accounts are earning commissions from promoting these products. According to Amazon, as a creator, this program, “permits you to monetize your (...) social media user-generated content.” When customers “click through or engage with the Special Links to purchase an item” creators will “receive commission income.”“Special Links” refers to an URL that carries an ID, or tag, unique to the account that posted it. Amazon then uses these to send any resulting commission from a purchase back to that account. In other words, if the link leads to a sale, the account behind that ID receives a percentage of the transaction. In the URL, the unique ID appears after “tag=”. For example, in “tag=jupi-hydration-20”, the ID is jupi-hydration and “-20” indicates it’s a US-registered account. Examples of Amazon “Special Links” from various accounts. We contacted one of the accounts directly. The person behind it told Maldita.es they run campaigns for different products across various profiles, all of them “grown organically” to reach high engagement levels. The accounts “get millions of views, the spillover is huge” the person said. They said they’d be open to selling the account for no less than $30K, that’s more than 26.000 euros.These accounts participate in a cross-platform monetisation scheme that is prohibited by both platforms. One the one hand, Meta stipulates that "Verified Standard Benefits are for personal, non-commercial purposes only." The sale of supplements through these accounts constitutes a commercial purpose, which directly contravenes this requirement. Moreover, Amazon has strict policies on who qualifies to participate in the program and bans social media user-generated content that promotes or contain “false” or “deceptive” materials. It is highly questionable how AI personas promoting miracle cures and health disinformation can qualify for this program under those rules. Both platforms are failing to enforce their own policies: the reason for this is for those platforms to explain but the fact is that both platforms benefit from these programs. Meta gets money from Meta Verified subscriptions and Amazon makes money from purchases and only pays creators and website owners after a sale is completed and shipped, meaning their advertising cost is entirely risk-free. The European Commission has already fined Meta for its “verification” blue check being deceptiveInstagram is a designated very large online platform (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA) which means it carries obligations to assess risks stemming from its services and must put in place mitigation measures to reduce said risks. Article 34 specifically requires Meta to assess the systemic risks stemming from the design and functioning of its service and its negative effects on public health among the categories to be assessed. The accounts are paying for a check that signals authenticity and raises their content in search. In this case, amplification of harmful content is not a side effect of the functioning of the platform, it is the service being purchased. Meta’s authentication process is not working adequately and a service on which Meta makes money is also helping amplify health disinformation.In 2025 the European Commission fined X €120 million for breaching the DSA, and one of the three infringements based on the deceptive design of the blue verification mark. The investigation found that anyone could buy verified status without the company meaningfully checking who was behind the account, which made it harder for users to judge the authenticity of the profiles and content they engage with and increased their exposure to fraud. The Commission also weighed the fact that the content of paying subscribers received greater algorithmic visibility as well. Another investigation by Maldita found accounts impersonating celebrities had obtained Meta Verified despite the photo ID requirement.Article 35 (k) of the DSA lists, among possible mitigation measures, ensuring that generated or manipulated video which appreciably resemble existing persons and falsely appear authentic are distinguishable through prominent markings on the platform's interfaces. A synthetic presenter appreciably resembles a person and falsely appears to be authentic but no such visible markings appear on most of the videos of these 25 accounts. Detection should not be a problem for Meta. Some of the posts even include in the description the the hashtag #syntheticperformer whereby the creators themselves declare, in a machine-readable field on Meta's own platform, that the person on screen is not real. Even if these accounts were verified initially under authentic signals and then changed their name, picture and content to an AI persona, any change after verification has to pass a review. This means Meta has every possibility to authenticate the account before and even after the verification process.Amazon is also designated as a VLOP under the DSA which means it holds the same risk assessment and mitigation obligations as Instagram. Although Amazon tried to challenge this designation by arguing that its marketplace did “not pose any such systemic risks” the DSA was built to address, our investigation shows why both the General Court and the Court of Justice rejected that argument in November 2025. A las redes sociales les da igual. A nosotros no. Ayúdanos a investigar. DONA "> A las redes sociales les da igual. A nosotros no. Ayúdanos a investigar. DONA Amazon provides the money incentiveIn the case of this cross-platform monetisation scheme, the risk here is not only confined to Instagram but it spills over onto Amazon's own platform, since it’s Amazon’s functionality that funds the people running these AI accounts on Instagram. This is despite the marketplace’s own policy stating that social media user-generated content promoting or containing "false" or "deceptive" material is ineligible to earn commissions. Therefore accounts with content claiming a tea with lemon, ginger and garlic can prevent heart attacks or another Reel claiming you can get rid of kidney stones in just three days with a mix of coconut water, lemon juice and olive oil, should not be able to qualify for the program. The fact that they can make commissions out of selling these products is arguably what incentivises these accounts to share health disinformation at scale. The more people they reach, the more products they sell, the more money they make. Some of the supplements promoted by these accounts, in several cases, ranked among the site's best sellers. In the case of Soursop Bitters, for example, it sold 70.000 bottles in the month of June alone.Amazon might include a boilerplate disclaimer saying the products are "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition" but it is funding the AI-influencers who are pushing exactly that narrative on Instagram, against its own rules. 📲 ¡Pincha aquí y sigue el canal de WhatsApp de Maldita.es para que no te la cuelen! "> 📲 ¡Pincha aquí y sigue el canal de WhatsApp de Maldita.es para que no te la cuelen! Thanks to your superpowers, knowledge, and experience, we can fight lies more effectively. The Maldita.es community is essential to stopping misinformation. Help us in this battle: send us the hoaxes you receive to our WhatsApp service, lend us your superpowers, spread our fact-checking, and become an Ambassador.
On an Instagram Reel, a Siberian village healer by the name of Baba Matryona offers a cure for high blood pressure. “Follow me and type in the words blood pressure in the comments”, she says, “I will show you a natural, science-backed way that people are using to reverse this for good.” Her bio links to an Amazon storefront selling Jupi, a hydration and wellness powder whose own product page states that it is "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition." Baba Matryona has a blue check next to her name indicating that the identity has been verified by Meta, and accumulates more than 6 million views on her videos. But she’s not a real person, she’s an AI persona.This is one of a total of 25 verified Instagram accounts, identified by Fundación Maldita.es, that present AI-generated people as sources of health advice and use them to sell supplements on Amazon and e-books about “holistic” cures. The remedies they promote are offered as treatments for kidney disease, weight gain and tooth discolouration, among other ailments. None of the creators is a real person but all of them have a Meta Verified blue check next to their name, a service that Meta offers that signals authenticity and is allegedly granted on the basis of having checked it represents a real person.A problem at scale: 5 million subscribers and 389 million viewsMeta openly markets the blue check as something that helps creators “build more confidence with new audiences” and promises “search optimisation” and a “prioritization and increased visibility across some surfaces”. This not only makes it more likely that users will place more trust on these accounts and their misleading health advice but it also means that the content is more likely to appear when searching for health advice on the platform. In fact, the numbers speak for themselves. Just 25 accounts accumulate more than five million subscribers and 389 million views.Meta's Authentic Identity Representation policy provides that accounts engaging in identity misrepresentation to mislead or deceive others will be restricted or disabled. The verified badge is one of the available mechanisms intended to ward off that risk on the platform or at the very least to give a signal of what accounts a user can reasonably trust. To obtain a badge, subscribers are ordinarily required to submit images of a valid photo ID, the profile name must correspond to their legal name and the profile picture must show the subscriber's face in order to establish that the account is true to the person behind it. For these really popular accounts, this was not the case.The policy does leave one opening. In certain cases, eligible users "may be verified using your activity across Meta products, such as name tenure and profile completeness, including name and picture." This is something a synthetic account, with matching profiles in Threads and Facebook, as a majority of the accounts we found had, could very well achieve. The result is a grey area in which the identity requirement could be satisfied without providing an ID, which makes this functionality readily available to actors such as the ones we have studied.A coordinated campaign that goes against Instagram and Amazon’s rulesThese 25 accounts show signs of coordination. They follow the same template, posing as a holistic doctor or a healer, a profile picture of the AI character and a bio along the same lines, one that promises natural remedies and links out to a product page. #carrusel-inves-ia-instagram { max-width: 800px; margin: 2rem auto; font-family: system-ui, sans-serif; } .titulo-carrusel { color: #000; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0.8rem; padding-left: 4px; } #carrusel-mini { overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 100%; height: 260px; /* Fondo Instagram */ background: #c13584; border-radius: 14px; border: 1px solid rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.25); box-shadow: 0 10px 30px rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.35); } /* Degradados laterales */ #carrusel-mini::before, #carrusel-mini::after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 60px; height: 100%; z-index: 2; pointer-events: none; } #carrusel-mini::before { left: 0; background: linear-gradient(to right, #c13584, transparent); } #carrusel-mini::after { right: 0; background: linear-gradient(to left, #c13584, transparent); } .carrusel-track { display: flex; width: max-content; height: 100%; align-items: center; animation: carruselScroll 45s linear infinite; will-change: transform; } #carrusel-mini img { height: 100%; width: auto; object-fit: cover; margin: 0 8px; border-radius: 10px; flex-shrink: 0; border: 1px solid rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.2); transition: transform 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease; } #carrusel-mini img:hover { transform: scale(1.08); box-shadow: 0 8px 20px rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.35); } #carrusel-mini:hover .carrusel-track { animation-play-state: paused; } @keyframes carruselScroll { from { transform: translateX(0); } to { transform: translateX(-50%); } } "> #carrusel-inves-ia-instagram { max-width: 800px; margin: 2rem auto; font-family: system-ui, sans-serif; } .titulo-carrusel { color: #000; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0.8rem; padding-left: 4px; } #carrusel-mini { overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 100%; height: 260px; /* Fondo Instagram */ background: #c13584; border-radius: 14px; border: 1px solid rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.25); box-shadow: 0 10px 30px rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.35); } /* Degradados laterales */ #carrusel-mini::before, #carrusel-mini::after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 60px; height: 100%; z-index: 2; pointer-events: none; } #carrusel-mini::before { left: 0; background: linear-gradient(to right, #c13584, transparent); } #carrusel-mini::after { right: 0; background: linear-gradient(to left, #c13584, transparent); } .carrusel-track { display: flex; width: max-content; height: 100%; align-items: center; animation: carruselScroll 45s linear infinite; will-change: transform; } #carrusel-mini img { height: 100%; width: auto; object-fit: cover; margin: 0 8px; border-radius: 10px; flex-shrink: 0; border: 1px solid rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.2); transition: transform 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease; } #carrusel-mini img:hover { transform: scale(1.08); box-shadow: 0 8px 20px rgba(193, 53, 132, 0.35); } #carrusel-mini:hover .carrusel-track { animation-play-state: paused; } @keyframes carruselScroll { from { transform: translateX(0); } to { transform: translateX(-50%); } } If one analyses these links, one can see they use Amazon associates tags, specific codes linked to the different profiles that pay a commission on each sale routed through it, meaning these accounts are earning commissions from promoting these products. According to Amazon, as a creator, this program, “permits you to monetize your (...) social media user-generated content.” When customers “click through or engage with the Special Links to purchase an item” creators will “receive commission income.”“Special Links” refers to an URL that carries an ID, or tag, unique to the account that posted it. Amazon then uses these to send any resulting commission from a purchase back to that account. In other words, if the link leads to a sale, the account behind that ID receives a percentage of the transaction. In the URL, the unique ID appears after “tag=”. For example, in “tag=jupi-hydration-20”, the ID is jupi-hydration and “-20” indicates it’s a US-registered account. Examples of Amazon “Special Links” from various accounts. We contacted one of the accounts directly. The person behind it told Maldita.es they run campaigns for different products across various profiles, all of them “grown organically” to reach high engagement levels. The accounts “get millions of views, the spillover is huge” the person said. They said they’d be open to selling the account for no less than $30K, that’s more than 26.000 euros.These accounts participate in a cross-platform monetisation scheme that is prohibited by both platforms. One the one hand, Meta stipulates that "Verified Standard Benefits are for personal, non-commercial purposes only." The sale of supplements through these accounts constitutes a commercial purpose, which directly contravenes this requirement. Moreover, Amazon has strict policies on who qualifies to participate in the program and bans social media user-generated content that promotes or contain “false” or “deceptive” materials. It is highly questionable how AI personas promoting miracle cures and health disinformation can qualify for this program under those rules. Both platforms are failing to enforce their own policies: the reason for this is for those platforms to explain but the fact is that both platforms benefit from these programs. Meta gets money from Meta Verified subscriptions and Amazon makes money from purchases and only pays creators and website owners after a sale is completed and shipped, meaning their advertising cost is entirely risk-free. The European Commission has already fined Meta for its “verification” blue check being deceptiveInstagram is a designated very large online platform (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA) which means it carries obligations to assess risks stemming from its services and must put in place mitigation measures to reduce said risks. Article 34 specifically requires Meta to assess the systemic risks stemming from the design and functioning of its service and its negative effects on public health among the categories to be assessed. The accounts are paying for a check that signals authenticity and raises their content in search. In this case, amplification of harmful content is not a side effect of the functioning of the platform, it is the service being purchased. Meta’s authentication process is not working adequately and a service on which Meta makes money is also helping amplify health disinformation.In 2025 the European Commission fined X €120 million for breaching the DSA, and one of the three infringements based on the deceptive design of the blue verification mark. The investigation found that anyone could buy verified status without the company meaningfully checking who was behind the account, which made it harder for users to judge the authenticity of the profiles and content they engage with and increased their exposure to fraud. The Commission also weighed the fact that the content of paying subscribers received greater algorithmic visibility as well. Another investigation by Maldita found accounts impersonating celebrities had obtained Meta Verified despite the photo ID requirement.Article 35 (k) of the DSA lists, among possible mitigation measures, ensuring that generated or manipulated video which appreciably resemble existing persons and falsely appear authentic are distinguishable through prominent markings on the platform's interfaces. A synthetic presenter appreciably resembles a person and falsely appears to be authentic but no such visible markings appear on most of the videos of these 25 accounts. Detection should not be a problem for Meta. Some of the posts even include in the description the the hashtag #syntheticperformer whereby the creators themselves declare, in a machine-readable field on Meta's own platform, that the person on screen is not real. Even if these accounts were verified initially under authentic signals and then changed their name, picture and content to an AI persona, any change after verification has to pass a review. This means Meta has every possibility to authenticate the account before and even after the verification process.Amazon is also designated as a VLOP under the DSA which means it holds the same risk assessment and mitigation obligations as Instagram. Although Amazon tried to challenge this designation by arguing that its marketplace did “not pose any such systemic risks” the DSA was built to address, our investigation shows why both the General Court and the Court of Justice rejected that argument in November 2025. A las redes sociales les da igual. A nosotros no. Ayúdanos a investigar. DONA "> A las redes sociales les da igual. A nosotros no. Ayúdanos a investigar. DONA Amazon provides the money incentiveIn the case of this cross-platform monetisation scheme, the risk here is not only confined to Instagram but it spills over onto Amazon's own platform, since it’s Amazon’s functionality that funds the people running these AI accounts on Instagram. This is despite the marketplace’s own policy stating that social media user-generated content promoting or containing "false" or "deceptive" material is ineligible to earn commissions. Therefore accounts with content claiming a tea with lemon, ginger and garlic can prevent heart attacks or another Reel claiming you can get rid of kidney stones in just three days with a mix of coconut water, lemon juice and olive oil, should not be able to qualify for the program. The fact that they can make commissions out of selling these products is arguably what incentivises these accounts to share health disinformation at scale. The more people they reach, the more products they sell, the more money they make. Some of the supplements promoted by these accounts, in several cases, ranked among the site's best sellers. In the case of Soursop Bitters, for example, it sold 70.000 bottles in the month of June alone.Amazon might include a boilerplate disclaimer saying the products are "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition" but it is funding the AI-influencers who are pushing exactly that narrative on Instagram, against its own rules. 📲 ¡Pincha aquí y sigue el canal de WhatsApp de Maldita.es para que no te la cuelen! "> 📲 ¡Pincha aquí y sigue el canal de WhatsApp de Maldita.es para que no te la cuelen! Thanks to your superpowers, knowledge, and experience, we can fight lies more effectively. The Maldita.es community is essential to stopping misinformation. Help us in this battle: send us the hoaxes you receive to our WhatsApp service, lend us your superpowers, spread our fact-checking, and become an Ambassador.
11 minutes
The Prairie Portraits series features founders, funders and community builders from Nebraska's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The post Prairie Portraits: Parker Crane appeared first on Silicon Prairie News.
11 minutes
The Prairie Portraits series features founders, funders and community builders from Nebraska's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The post Prairie Portraits: Parker Crane appeared first on Silicon Prairie News.
11 minutes
რუსეთის მიერ ანექსირებული უკრაინის ყირიმის დასახლებული პუნქტების ნაწილი - მათ შორის სამხრეთის სანაპიროზე - ელექტროენერგიის გარეშეა. "კრიმენერგო" აცხადებს დრონებით მიტანილი იერიშების თაობაზე ელექტროენერგიის მიწოდების ობიექტებზე. ყირიმში რუსეთის ოპერატიული შტაბი აცხადებს წყლის მიწოდების შეწყვეტაზეც, ალუშტის, სიმფეროპოლის, სუდაკისა და სხვა დასახლებულ პუნქტებში. ღამით ანექსირებულ სევასტოპოლსაც შეეზღუდა ელექტროენერგიის მიწოდება. რუსეთის მიერ დანიშნულმა სევასტოპოლის ხელმძღვანელმა, მიხაილ...
რუსეთის მიერ ანექსირებული უკრაინის ყირიმის დასახლებული პუნქტების ნაწილი - მათ შორის სამხრეთის სანაპიროზე - ელექტროენერგიის გარეშეა. "კრიმენერგო" აცხადებს დრონებით მიტანილი იერიშების თაობაზე ელექტროენერგიის მიწოდების ობიექტებზე. ყირიმში რუსეთის ოპერატიული შტაბი აცხადებს წყლის მიწოდების შეწყვეტაზეც, ალუშტის, სიმფეროპოლის, სუდაკისა და სხვა დასახლებულ პუნქტებში. ღამით ანექსირებულ სევასტოპოლსაც შეეზღუდა ელექტროენერგიის მიწოდება. რუსეთის მიერ დანიშნულმა სევასტოპოლის ხელმძღვანელმა, მიხაილ...
11 minutes
The Moscow-based group of companies “Energoprof” fired its sales director, Yekaterina Remizova, for violating trade secrecy rules. Among other things, the company was unhappy that she had uploaded internal reports to the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek.
The Moscow-based group of companies “Energoprof” fired its sales director, Yekaterina Remizova, for violating trade secrecy rules. Among other things, the company was unhappy that she had uploaded internal reports to the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek.
13 minutes
«Думаю, што Такаеў узгадніў сказанае з самім Пуціным. Хутчэй за ўсё ён зрабіў гэта па просьбе Сі Цзіньпіна», — заявіў палітоляг Руслан Айсін у інтэрвію тэлеканалу «Настоящее время».
«Думаю, што Такаеў узгадніў сказанае з самім Пуціным. Хутчэй за ўсё ён зрабіў гэта па просьбе Сі Цзіньпіна», — заявіў палітоляг Руслан Айсін у інтэрвію тэлеканалу «Настоящее время».
13 minutes
सोशल मीडिया पर लगभग 37 सेकंड का एक वीडियो वायरल हो रहा है, जिसमें एक मुस्लिम व्यक्ति एक काली SUV में आग लगाने की कोशिश करता हुआ दिख रहा है. दावे के मुताबिक, ‘कॉकरोच जनता पार्टी’ (CJP) का कोई प्रदर्शनकारी दिन-दहाड़े BJP कार्यकर्ता की कार में आग लगा रहा है. वीडियो में पुलिसकर्मी उस गुस्से […]
सोशल मीडिया पर लगभग 37 सेकंड का एक वीडियो वायरल हो रहा है, जिसमें एक मुस्लिम व्यक्ति एक काली SUV में आग लगाने की कोशिश करता हुआ दिख रहा है. दावे के मुताबिक, ‘कॉकरोच जनता पार्टी’ (CJP) का कोई प्रदर्शनकारी दिन-दहाड़े BJP कार्यकर्ता की कार में आग लगा रहा है. वीडियो में पुलिसकर्मी उस गुस्से […]
14 minutes
Zazpigarren edizioa abiaraziko dute aurten. Parte hartzen duten herritarrek mentore lanak egingo dituzte, migratzaileen, errefuxiatuen eta nazioarteko babesa eskatzen duten pertsonen gizarteratzea eta ongizate psikosoziala sustatzeko.
Zazpigarren edizioa abiaraziko dute aurten. Parte hartzen duten herritarrek mentore lanak egingo dituzte, migratzaileen, errefuxiatuen eta nazioarteko babesa eskatzen duten pertsonen gizarteratzea eta ongizate psikosoziala sustatzeko.
15 minutes
Gasteizko Udaltzaingoak bi gizon atxilotu zituen larunbatean, bikotekide ohiarengandik urruntzeko agindua urratzea egotzita bata, eta bikotekideari eraso egitea egotzita bestea.
Gasteizko Udaltzaingoak bi gizon atxilotu zituen larunbatean, bikotekide ohiarengandik urruntzeko agindua urratzea egotzita bata, eta bikotekideari eraso egitea egotzita bestea.
20 minutes
Männer reisen in ferne Länder, die sie als vielversprechenden „Dating-Markt“ betrachten, und vermarkten ihre Erfahrungen online als Alternative zum erfolglosen Dating „im Westen“. Doch hinter der Passport Bros Selbstinszenierung stehen nicht nur Urlaubsromantik und Partnersuche, sondern auch Sexismus, wirtschaftliche Ungleichheit und die Frage, wann private Beziehungen in Ausbeutung und Abhängigkeit münden. Was sind „Passport Bros”? […] Der Beitrag Passport Bros: Zwischen Dating-Frust, Sex-Tourismus und veraltete Rollenbildern erschien zuerst auf Kontrast.at.
Männer reisen in ferne Länder, die sie als vielversprechenden „Dating-Markt“ betrachten, und vermarkten ihre Erfahrungen online als Alternative zum erfolglosen Dating „im Westen“. Doch hinter der Passport Bros Selbstinszenierung stehen nicht nur Urlaubsromantik und Partnersuche, sondern auch Sexismus, wirtschaftliche Ungleichheit und die Frage, wann private Beziehungen in Ausbeutung und Abhängigkeit münden. Was sind „Passport Bros”? […] Der Beitrag Passport Bros: Zwischen Dating-Frust, Sex-Tourismus und veraltete Rollenbildern erschien zuerst auf Kontrast.at.
20 minutes
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin closed the chamber’s eighth session, delivering a speech at the final meeting that summarized the deputies’ work.
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin closed the chamber’s eighth session, delivering a speech at the final meeting that summarized the deputies’ work.