Deepfakes Win an Election, a PR Firm Builds a Plagiarism Factory, and the Pope Says Disarm the Machines
We’ve spent the last few years watching narrative warfare move from a niche concern to a front-page problem. Disinformation campaigns, deepfake hiring fraud, AI-generated political content – these aren’t edge cases anymore. They’re the operational reality. Narrative Ops exists because the people dealing with this deserve a sharp, weekly read that doesn’t waste their time. Welcome to issue one.
Massie Points to AI Deepfakes After Losing Kentucky Primary – the First Congressional Casualty of Synthetic Media
Rep. Thomas Massie lost Kentucky’s 4th District Republican primary to Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein on May 19 by nearly ten points. Appearing on Meet the Press five days later, Massie argued that AI-generated attack ads had distorted perceptions among older voters less equipped to spot synthetic content. One ad, funded by the MAGA KY super PAC, placed Massie in fabricated surveillance footage checking into a hotel with Democratic congresswomen. Another, from a PAC supporting Massie, showed a computer-generated Gallrein fleeing a battlefield as Trump fired at enemies.
“They used AI to create a life-like video showing me checking into a hotel room.”
– Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Meet the Press, May 24, 2026The race became the most expensive congressional primary in US history. AdImpact Politics put the total ad spend above $32 million. The pro-Gallrein MAGA KY PAC, backed by hedge fund manager Paul Singer and casino magnate Miriam Adelson, spent $4.5 million on attack ads alone. Kentucky passed a state law in 2025 regulating deepfakes in campaign materials, but the anti-Massie ad carried a small-print disclosure calling itself “satirical” and sidestepped the statute.
Massie was already Trump’s most prominent Republican critic in the House, and the endorsement gap alone separated the candidates by double digits in pre-election polling. Both sides used synthetic content. Both sides spent record sums to distribute it. Massie is the first sitting congressman to attribute a primary defeat to AI-generated ads.
A PR Firm Is Running a 300-Article-a-Day AI Plagiarism Mill – and Its CEO Is Listed as Author
Futurism reported in April that National Today, a website operated by TOP Agency – a PR firm claiming Microsoft, Intel, and Budweiser as clients – has been mass-producing AI-generated articles that plagiarise original reporting from legitimate newsrooms. Futurism’s team tried to count the daily output and gave up after 300 articles. The stolen material ranged from local TV station reporting on a Texas family tragedy to New York Times interviews, all rewritten by AI and published without attribution.
“This is not just a media ethics issue, it’s a legal and reputational one.”
– Aron Solomon, Chief Strategy Officer, AMPLIFYA hallucinated quote about San Francisco crime kept appearing in unrelated stories about the Dallas Cowboys, a Boston biotech firm, and a New York City tax day event. TOP Agency CEO Benjamin Kaplan is listed as author on numerous plagiarised pieces. The site also hosts a page for “Prevent Plagiarism Day” (February 17). After Futurism’s enquiries, several articles were quietly removed. Neither Kaplan nor TOP Agency responded to requests for comment.
National Today started as a catalogue of obscure holidays - a lead-generation tool for PR clients who wanted to “create or sponsor their own holiday.” The news section appeared around January 2026. AI-generated content costs almost nothing to produce, the SEO footprint drives traffic, traffic drives ad revenue. TOP Agency’s client list includes Microsoft, Intel, and Budweiser. Neither the clients nor TOP Agency have commented on the Futurism report.
Amnesty Documents How Indonesia’s Military Turned Online Vilification Into an Acid Attack
Amnesty International published the results of an eighteen-month investigation on May 19, documenting how Indonesian state actors, including military intelligence units, ran coordinated disinformation campaigns branding human rights defenders and journalists as “foreign agents.” The operation used dozens of accounts presenting themselves as part of the Indonesian military alongside hundreds of anonymous profiles across Meta, TikTok, X, and YouTube.
“Online vilification preceded real-world violence.”
– Amnesty International, “Building Up Imaginary Enemies,” May 2026Andrie Yunus, deputy coordinator of KontraS, was targeted for months after leading protests against revisions to Indonesia’s Military Law. In March 2026, he suffered severe chemical burns in an acid attack in Jakarta. Four military officers were arrested. The disinformation did not stop. Coordinated videos then accused Yunus of staging the assault to attract foreign funding. Tempo, the investigative newsroom, received a severed pig’s head at its offices followed by decapitated rats. Identical graphics depicting George Soros looming over Tempo’s building appeared across anonymous X accounts within the same hour.
Indonesia is the world’s third-largest democracy. Under President Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces commander, the military’s role in civilian affairs has expanded since 2024. The Amnesty report documents the sequence in this case: coordinated accounts, targeted posts, hashtags branding individuals as foreign agents, then acid.
Poland Arrests Three Citizens Running Russian Intelligence Cell
Polish authorities charged three Polish nationals on May 20 with collecting information on NATO force deployments, preparing sabotage, and producing pro-Russian propaganda materials under FSB direction.
UK’s First Deepfake Detection Pilot Completes Its Election Cycle
The Electoral Commission’s AI-supported monitoring system ran through the May 7 elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The pilot ran from April to June; evaluation expected by end of June. During the 2024 general election, a quarter of voters surveyed reported seeing or hearing a deepfake.
AI Death Hoax Network Jumps from Australian Sport to New Zealand Rugby
Fake Facebook pages fabricated player deaths and cancer diagnoses for All Blacks players. Operators traced to Vietnam and the Philippines expanded from NRL/AFL to Super Rugby Pacific in eleven days. One fake post about Julian Savea’s wife drew 100+ condolences.
Pope Leo Drops First Encyclical: AI Must Be “Disarmed”
Magnifica Humanitas calls for slowing AI development and banning autonomous weapons. The Pope revealed he rejected a proposal to build an AI “papal avatar” to hold private audiences. US Interior Secretary Burgum responded that he had no idea “tech editorialising was part of the role of being Pope.”
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