Hackers are always innovating ways for extortion. In the last four years, they have become more tech-savvy and are now using AI and deep fake cloning to infringe on copyright materials and strike social media influencers and celebrities. — Image by freepik
Last month, an Indian artist popular for doing covers of various hit songs, had a copyright strike or removal request for using copyright-protected content. After his account was suspended by Meta, he started receiving messages on his Telegram account and the WhatsApp number of his manager for ransom payment in bitcoin.
In another recent case, an Arab travel and food blogger was targeted for copyright infringement of travel brands inadvertently shown in his videos. The hacker allegedly used AI (artificial intelligence) to report more than 20 videos which had a brand logo or reference to it. A legal team wrote to Meta but it took three days to recover the account, and the hacker/s had already targeted his other social media accounts and he collectively lost almost one million followers.
