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At first glance, the news is shocking – the type of story that would grace the front page of a tabloid news outlet.
The article claims West Australian shark attack victim Steven Mattaboni was on the phone with his wife just moments before he was attacked.
The story, posted by a website called “Luxury Blog” and shared by the Facebook page “Voice of Aus”, goes into detail about the alleged audio, and claims it is “now being reviewed by investigators, and has already left thousands of people online in tears after details of the call began to spread on social media”.
The only issue? It’s not true. No one from WA Police has spoken to anyone from “Luxury Blog” or “Voice of Aus”, and there is no phone call doing the rounds on social media.
Meanwhile, other stories published by the website claim Fremantle Dockers captain Alex Pearce caused internal club ructions and shunned an AFL Pride Round by “flatly refusing to wear an LGBT- themed armband ahead of the team’s upcoming match”.
It “quotes” the captain as saying: “Football is about competition, teammates, and supporters coming together for the game itself — not political messaging.”
But the quote runs directly against Pearce’s outspoken advocacy, and a Fremantle Dockers spokesperson said they would not be entertaining the claims of the page.
Notably, the AFL does not have a dedicated pride round. There is a Pride Game, but that is typically between Sydney and St Kilda (this year, it will take place in round 17, when Sydney play the Western Bulldogs).
Last week, WA’s deputy premier Rita Saffioti said she too had come across fake news content regarding the Dockers captain.
“There was a whole Facebook feed about it – it said Nat Fyfe was giving money away to a charity, or Alex Pearce had received something before a game – it had 800 likes,” she said.
“It was completely false, but there’s no way you could have guessed that when you first read it.”
The phenomenon of “pink-slime” journalism – where artificial intelligence scrapes news websites and reproduces the information in separate articles – is well-known.
But the University of Queensland digital media expert Dr Anne Kruger said websites like “Voice of Aus” would publish entire falsehoods as a way to make money.
“The reason this exists is to grab attention from as wide a net as possible and turn that into money,” Kruger said.
“The telltale signs are the over-the-top sensational, emotive headlines, often picking up on high-profile names that have a familiar sound.
“This doesn’t have to be a famous person necessarily, but a name that has been in the news – particularly, in this case, in relation to a tragedy.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is a repeat focus of these artificial intelligence websites, with Voice of Aus posting her front and centre of its social media.
An AI-generated image posted to their Facebook shows Hanson draped in an Australian flag, with the headline: “We believe Pauline Hanson can make our country great again. Do you agree?”
A One Nation spokesman said the party was not affiliated with the website in any way.
“…we as people want to engage … and we think this is a way to join, not knowing that we’re just feeding a monetisation machine…”
Dr Anne Kruger
Dr Kruger said such websites generated revenue using ads that did not even need to be clicked on, and the point was not to get people to stay and digest the information, but to skim through and see the advertisements.
“The best way to do that is not through quality but through attention-grabbing and appealing to emotions or cheap thrills,” she said.
A number of comments on the Voice of Aus Facebook page frequently appear to agree with its contents – or at least believe the information it has posted.
One post about former Brisbane Lions captain Lachie Neale’s marriage break-up with influencer Jules Neale showed what appeared to be an artificially generated image of Jules crying, and quoted her speaking about the circumstances of the breakdown.
In the comments, many appeared to take the article as genuine, and said Neale needed to “let it go” and to “stop talking” about the end of her marriage.
Neale’s team declined to comment, but it is understood none of the claims outlined in the post were ever made.
“In the past my main concern was that comments were being amplified by bots – and while this is still the case, more and more we see real people believing the posts and commenting,” Dr Kruger said.
“It’s because we as people want to engage, to be part of something or take control – and we think this is a way to join, not knowing that we’re just feeding a monetisation machine for people working behind websites in bad faith.
Voice of Aus was contacted for comment.
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