Who are Amandine Le Pen and Léna Maréchal, these deepfakes who promote the far right on TikTok?

2024-04-15 02:12:10

Deepfakes alert. For several days, fake accounts featuring “Amandine Le Pen” or even “Léna Maréchal” have surfaced on TikTok as well as other social networks. Two months before the European elections, these anonymous accounts spotted by the Swiss media RTS include the last names of Marine Le Pen and Marion Maréchal, but also their faces thanks to artificial intelligence.

The goal ? Promoting the far right by presenting a glamorous image of the party through these fake AI-generated content. Indeed, these videos feature sexy young girls with the rejuvenated faces of Marine Le Pen and that of her niece from Reconquête, Marion Maréchal.

“The dress I’m going to wear for Jordan’s victory”

Deleted for several hours, count “Amandineeette” had more than 32,000 subscribers on TikTok and dozens of videos containing deepfakes, just like the account “lena.marechal.lepen”, still active. “When the RN is elected”, “Me when I am going to vote Reconquest in June”, “The dress that I will wear for the victory of Jordan (Bardella)”… numerous political messages promote the RN and Reconquest, accompanied videos where we see these fake young girls with the faces of Marine Le Pen or Marion Maréchal highlighting their attractive appearance.

Very well done, these videos use the TikTok codes that appeal to the younger generation: trendy music, accompanied by choreographies performed by young girls, often against a backdrop of flashy landscapes.

If we can believe in simple parody accounts created to make Internet users smile, they seem to have been created to deceive them and advertise the National Rally to young users. As RTS points out, the fictitious influencer Amandine Le Pen tries to pass herself off as a “proud Frenchwoman” who adores “her aunt” Marine Le Pen.

The RN and Reconquest reacted

While it may seem obvious to some that these are deepfakes, many people seem to fall for it and post messages of support for the parties of Marine Le Pen or Éric Zemmour in the comments. Fortunately, warnings about video deception are also present.

Contacted by BFMTV, the National Rally refutes any link with these anonymous accounts. “We are not making any fakes, I am against everything that is false,” says MEP Philippe Olivier. According to him, the Le Pen family is “not very happy” about the use of these images, so much so that the party wanted to take legal action, before finally retracting, the party being “in the middle of European campaign.

Same feeling from the Reconquest party which did not fail to report the account of the fictitious influencer Léna Maréchal, according to Sarah Knafo, Eric Zemmour’s advisor.