Description: Two purported deepfake videos circulated on X using former student Zyon Lewis's identity to allegedly falsely accuse Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico of sexual assault. Lewis said the person depicted was not him and denied the allegation. Researchers linked the videos to the Russia-aligned Storm-1516 influence operation. The original account was suspended, but copies continued to circulate.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Deepfake technology developers , Synthetic video generation technology developers and Synthetic media generation technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Storm-1516 , Information manipulation actors , Deepfake creators , Synthetic media creators and Information manipulation actors in Russia, which harmed James Talarico , Zyon Lewis , political candidates , Politicians , Politicians in the United States , Public figures , Epistemic integrity , Privacy , Targets of online impersonation , Voters , Voters in the United States and Democratic integrity.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Deepfake technology , Synthetic video generation technology and Synthetic media generation technology
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1793
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2026-10-20
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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We identified a very likely coordinated network of accounts across Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok, X, and YouTube that is impersonating US Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, who serves in the Department of Justice’s…
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X posts
stated on October 21, 2026 in X posts:
This video shows a former James Talarico student accusing him of misconduct.
Pants on Fire!
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Texas state Rep. James Talarico arrives at a campaign event in Pla…
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.
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