Artificial Intelligence Policy Tracker

AI incident ·

Purportedly AI-Generated Jeffrey Epstein Video Reportedly Used by Pro-Iran Accounts to Claim Iran War Was Launched as a Cover-Up

1 news report Snapshot 7 Sep 2026
On this page 6 sections

In brief

An AI system built by Deepfake Technology Developers and deployed by Information Manipulation Actors, Hdx News and 2 others allegedly harmed Jewish People, General Public and 2 others.

Risk domain
Malicious Actors & Misuse
Occurred
Coverage
1 reportMar 2026

What happened

During the Iran war, anonymous pro-Iran accounts on X including HDX News and GPX News reportedly circulated a purportedly AI-generated Jeffrey Epstein-themed video while claiming it was real and that U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran were launched to distract from Epstein-related material. The Washington Post reported the HDX News post received more than 6.8 million views and GPX News's version received more than 4.7 million before both accounts were suspended by X.

Laws on record for this risk area

Policy angle: Classified under Malicious Actors & Misuse in the MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy; 5 instruments on record cover this risk area.

Matched from the record's risk category and country to the instruments in effect recorded here: a law listed covers the area, which is not a finding that it applies to this incident. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).

News reports (1)

Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.

Who was involved

Alleged harmed party
Jewish People, General Public, Epistemic Integrity, Donald Trump

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Risk subdomain
—
Causal entity
AI
Intent
Intentional
Timing
Post-deployment
Harm level
—
Sectors
—
Countries
—

Source record: incident #1496 on the AI Incident Database · all 1 report