The NRL is taking decisive action against a troubling trend of AI-generated misinformation plaguing rugby league and AFL communities, as fake news accounts increasingly target players, clubs, and fans online.
In recent months, a surge of Facebook pages masquerading as official club or fan channels have emerged, generating false narratives using advanced AI tools.
These posts, cleverly designed to mimic authentic content, have quickly gained traction, amassing thousands of likes, shares, and comments, and extending their reach to tens of thousands of individuals.
The misinformation being spread has transcended mere misleading claims, evolving into harmful content.
Rumors suggesting that former stars like Jonathan Thurston are suffering from serious illnesses have surfaced, alongside invented discriminatory policies for stadiums and numerous false reports about player deaths.
The alarming scale and nature of this misinformation have compelled the NRL to take immediate action, collaborating directly with Meta to eliminate the accounts responsible for this trend.
"The NRL is aware of several fake accounts impersonating NRL clubs and sharing false, harmful content, including fabricated news," an NRL spokesman reported to The Australian.
"The NRL has reported these accounts and offending posts to Meta. We have been and will continue to work closely with Meta to have them removed."
In response, clubs have also started to take proactive measures to combat this issue.