Please listen to Alejandro Sepulveda. It is in Spanish.

Hi everyone. You keep sending me messages saying you’re seeing fake accounts sending friend requests—both here on Instagram and across the whole Meta/Facebook group, as well as on other sites I don't even know and where I don't have accounts. Yet, so many of you keep writing to ask if I’m the one creating those profiles and sending those requests. I think I’ve said this many times: it isn't me—they are fake accounts. They’re mostly people from Nigeria running scams; they steal my photos and use them to defraud people. So, please be extremely careful! I’ve said it often: I only have this IG account (plus a backup account listed on my profile), a Facebook account, and a Threads account—and everything I post on IG automatically posts to all of them. I don't actually log into those other platforms; I only use IG, which is why I often don't see messages sent to me there. BUT IN ANY CASE, IT ISN'T ME—PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL! There are so many fake profiles out there; I often report fake profiles on IG, but they don't always get taken down. I’m going to post some examples right now so you can see them. Also, keep in mind that with Artificial Intelligence (AI), people are doing some outrageous things.

Just today, I was sent two AI-generated photos of myself in places I’ve never been in my life—one of them was in the Philippines—so please, be very careful! It’s getting harder every day to tell if what you see on social media is real or not—whether you’re talking to a real person, an AI, a bot, or some guy in Nigeria who has no qualms about sending you photos pretending to be me (this is known as impersonation or identity theft). So please, be extremely careful—seriously. Never, ever send photos, and trust what you see on social media less and less.

Thanks!!! You see? It’s actually scary. Honestly, AI scares me because, regarding the photos I showed you, even I couldn't tell if they were genuine or not—if they were real. I assure you they aren't; I’ve honestly never even been to the Philippines or anywhere near there, but that’s the reality of the situation. When you combine the use of AI with the fact that social media company owners—since these are private businesses—prioritize profit and making money over user safety, you get an explosive cocktail. Since there’s no requirement to verify the identity of people signing up and creating profiles, all kinds of abuse occur—as you can see. We are all victims here: those of us whose photos are stolen, as well as those deceived and scammed by fake profiles. So, the direction this is all taking scares me. It genuinely worries me because we first created a digital world centered on social media as a way for us all to connect, and then we introduced commercial interests, a lack of oversight, and—of course—Artificial Intelligence. This makes it practically impossible to distinguish reality from falsehood, which is deeply concerning to me because it leads to so many consequences of all kinds. Please—I say this often—BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL!!! Bye.

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