NZ News Hub used AI-rewritten posts and synthetic images to mislead Facebook users
A Facebook page called NZ News Hub reportedly rewrote existing New Zealand news stories using AI and paired them with unlabelled synthetic and manipulated images, including fabricated or edited photos of real people and dramatised depictions of natural disasters and emergency incidents. Thousands of New Zealanders reportedly engaged with the content without realising it was AI-generated, with civil defence groups and experts expressing concern about the impact on trust in news.
What happened
A Facebook page called NZ News Hub took existing New Zealand news stories, rewrote them using artificial intelligence, and published them with synthetic images that were not labelled as AI-generated.
A 1News review of 209 posts from the page in January found that images were fabricated or manipulated, including a still photo of a minor killed in the Mount Maunganui landslide edited to show her dancing, and images of parents who had lost their teenage daughter to suicide edited to show them appearing affectionate.
Natural disasters and emergency services posts were consistently dramatised, with authentic slips depicted as far more destructive, crushed houses and cars added to the Mount Maunganui slip, and a grounded tourist boat in Akaroa edited to show far more passengers than in reality. Police were depicted wearing British or American uniforms with guns drawn when there was no indication officers were armed.
Reported impact
Thousands of New Zealanders were reportedly liking, commenting on and sharing the AI-rewritten content, potentially unaware it was generated by artificial intelligence.
Experts said the popularity and proliferation of these accounts blur the line between real reporting and fabricated content and may contribute to New Zealanders' already low trust in news. Civil defence groups issued public warnings about the pages.
Index analysis
The NZ News Hub page contained no original reporting and its name was similar to national outlet Newshub, which closed in 2024, potentially creating confusion with legitimate news sources.
Several images posted by the page contained a 'SynthID' digital watermark embedded in their pixels, indicating they were created using Google's AI image-generation tools.
Governance controls
Raw AI prompts were erroneously left visible in some posts, including 'Here's a news-style rewrite with a clear headline, emojis, and top hashtags' and 'If you want, I can also make this shorter, more dramatic, or social-media style'.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.