Description: Purported deepfake videos using the face and voice of Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis were reportedly circulated on YouTube and other social platforms in late 2025 and early 2026. The videos depicted a synthetic version of Varoufakis delivering fabricated political statements, including about international events. Platforms reportedly removed some videos, but many reappeared under new accounts.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown deepfake technology developers and Unknown voice cloning technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Unknown deepfake content creators and Unknown deepfake content creators impersonating Yanis Varoufakis, which harmed Yanis Varoufakis , Epistemic integrity , YouTube users and social media users.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown deepfake technology , Unknown voice cloning technology , Social media platforms and YouTube
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1331
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2026-01-05
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
Loading...
It was my blue shirt, a present from my sister-in-law, that gave it all away. It made me think of Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, the lowly bureaucrat in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella The Double, a disconcerting study of the fragmented self within…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
Seen something similar?