Fake Holocaust AI slop is flooding social media

A post circulating on Facebook shows a man named Henek, a violinist allegedly forced to play in the concentration camp’s orchestra at Auschwitz. “His role: to play music as fellow prisoners were led to the gas chambers,” reads the caption.

But there is no Holocaust victim by the name of Henek. The image is also AI-generated.

A new BBC investigation uncovered an international network of spammers who are posting fabricated Holocaust images on Facebook to profit from Meta’s content-monetization program.

In recent months, images of children abandoned on train tracks or lovers meeting across concentration camp fences have appeared on Facebook, attracting clicks and shares. None of the victims or stories is real.

According to the BBC, the images originate from spam networks in Pakistan, India, Vietnam, and Nigeria, where AI slop creators trade tips in private groups about exploiting Meta’s monetization scheme. Holocaust imagery, in particular, has proven to be a reliable traffic driver. One account claimed to generate more than 1.2 billion views and £16,000 ($21,600) in four months from mass-produced content.

The BBC also interviewed a Pakistani man enrolled in these monetization schemes. While he does not post Holocaust content, he said the work has become his sole source of income, noting that posts targeting U.K., U.S., and European audiences earn up to eight times more than those aimed at Asia.

Many history-themed pages and groups impersonate businesses to build audiences and qualify for monetization before pivoting to churn out Holocaust AI slop.

Meta told the BBC that the images themselves do not violate its policies but confirmed it had removed certain spam accounts flagged in the investigation. (Fast Company has reached out to Meta for comment.)

In an X post earlier this year, the Auschwitz Museum addressed the disturbing trend and the impact it has on real victims and their families: “What makes this particularly troubling is that their posts copy real content—including names, dates, and biographical facts taken directly from our posts,” the museum wrote. “Yet they pair this information with fabricated, AI-generated images that mislead viewers.”

The post continued: “The history of Auschwitz is a well-documented story. Altering its visual record with AI imagery introduces distortion, no matter the intent. Using made-up images, no matter how ‘poignant’ they seem, is a dangerous distortion of facts.”

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