AI grifters are creating fake Black people to sell Shein junk
The Verge AI·3d ago·Ethics
The Verge found TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook accounts using AI-generated Black women and other marginalized personas to sell dropshipped products. The videos frame mass-produced goods as handmade small-business items and use tears, racial identity, and hardship narratives to drive engagement. Researchers describe the pattern as digital blackface and empathy bait, enabled by short-form platforms, weak labeling, and widely available generative AI ad workflows.
