Olha Butko - attack 29.11.2023

On November 29, 2023, a video created using AI was posted on the TikTok account @tv_tyt6, featuring the image of TV host Olha Butko. The clip is a fragment of one of the broadcasts involving Butko that aired as part of the National “United News” telethon.

The use of AI is evidenced, in particular, by the fact that the audio track was overlaid separately onto the video — this is indicated by the lack of synchronization between the audio and visual content. In the video, Butko allegedly speaks about heavy snowfall covering the country, leading to imminent emergency power outages in certain regions. She refers to the head of Ukrenergo and invites viewers to follow a link in the channel’s profile bio to access the list of regions where electricity will be cut off.

Such content not only poses risks to audiences. It also undermines the reputations of women media professionals and the channels whose recognizable images are exploited to create such fabricated reports.

Therefore, this case shows signs of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), specifically gendered disinformation, identity theft/impersonation, and deepfake manipulation. The prevalence of such content on TikTok may indicate coordinated large-scale discrediting campaigns, apparently aimed at fraudulent manipulation of users’ personal data.