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Entities

UNKNOWN Files

Incidents involved as Deployer

Incident 13301 Report
Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

2025-12-13

A purportedly AI-generated fictional story falsely claimed that a Boy Scout named Eric Langford disappeared in New York in 1989 and reappeared in 2001 after being kidnapped. The reported hoax originated on the UNKNOWN Files YouTube channel and was repackaged into viral TikTok videos and AI-written blog posts promoted on Facebook, misleading millions of viewers and searchers about a fabricated missing-person case.

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Related Entities
Other entities that are related to the same incident. For example, if the developer of an incident is this entity but the deployer is another entity, they are marked as related entities.
 

Entity

Unknown deepfake technology developers

Incidents involved as Developer
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

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Entity

Unknown image generator developers

Incidents involved as Developer
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

More
Entity

Unknown generative AI developers

Incidents involved as Developer
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

More
Entity

Epistemic integrity

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

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Entity

social media users

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

More
Entity

YouTube users

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

More
Entity

TikTok users

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

More
Entity

Facebook users

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

More
Entity

Unknown deepfake technology

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

More
Entity

Unknown image generator technology

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

More
Entity

Unknown generative AI systems

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1330
    1 Report

    Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

More

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