Potentially Misleading AI Donation Campaign Video
UPDATED JUL 23, 2026
Standard Case 2026-044-FB-UA
Today, July 23, 2026, the Oversight Board selected a case appealed by a Facebook user regarding an AI-generated video of a Buddhist monk who appears to be part of the Walk for Peace march, accompanied by a link to a subscription-based platform soliciting support.
The Walk for Peace was a nonpartisan peace march held by Buddhist monks from October 2025 through February 2026, in which monks travelled across the United States on foot. In January 2026, a Facebook page, which lists "AI narrator" in its bio, posted an AI-generated video of a Buddhist monk seemingly part of the march. In the video, he stands in front of a welcome sign for the U.S. state of North Carolina, describes the cold conditions, and states "we are walking step by step but today is hard." He then asks people for their "warmth, love and prayers." The video's caption asks for support to "share this journey, and help carry peace forward," with hashtags referencing the Walk for Peace and a link to a Patreon page. The Patreon page describes itself as an "Unofficial fan project" with "no real affiliations" and offers paid subscription tiers for content. The post was viewed over 100,000 times.
Meta determined that this content did not violate our policies on Misinformation or Fraud, Scams and Deceptive Practices, as laid out in the Community Standards, and left the content up. Under our Misinformation policy, Meta removes misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm or interfere with the functioning of political processes. Meta also determined the post did not merit an informative manipulated media label as it was not connected to a time-sensitive event such as an election or crisis. Under our Fraud, Scams and Deceptive Practices policy, Meta determined the content did not satisfy the criteria for purposefully deceiving users for financial gain, noting that the request is not urgent, no payment information is included in the post, and the posting user discloses the content's artificial nature in the profile bio and linked Patreon page.
We will implement the Board's decision once it has finished deliberating, and we will update this post accordingly. Please see the Board's website for the decision when they issue it.