{"id":24738,"date":"2026-09-05T20:38:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T18:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/05\/alarming-ai-ads-are-flooding-social-media-in-the-lead-up-to-victorias-election-but-who-is-behind-them\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T20:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T18:38:26","slug":"alarming-ai-ads-are-flooding-social-media-in-the-lead-up-to-victorias-election-but-who-is-behind-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/05\/alarming-ai-ads-are-flooding-social-media-in-the-lead-up-to-victorias-election-but-who-is-behind-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Alarming AI ads are flooding social media in the lead-up to Victoria\u2019s election. But who is behind them?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A machete-wielding robber, a \u2018tsunami of debt\u2019 \u2026 campaigns echoing opposition talking points outspend major parties<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Get our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl\">breaking news email<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/app.adjust.com\/w4u7jx3\">free app<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/series\/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl\">daily news podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A man clad in a balaclava and brandishing a machete terrorises a worker at a petrol station before firebombing the building on the way out.<\/p>\n<p>A woman gives birth on the side of the road, unable to reach a hospital due to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2023\/nov\/18\/how-anne-pedler-last-hours-were-spent-ramped-in-an-ambulance\">ambulance ramping<\/a> and crater-like potholes, which also stop a fire truck in its tracks.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/sep\/06\/fix-victoria-ai-ads-flooding-social-media-election-who-is-behind-them\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/23bb7bec440eac48f806944c326eb626620703ab\/264_0_1264_1012\/master\/1264.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=9db4a6d95bc99a498a075e480d29fe9a\" title=\"Alarming AI ads are flooding social media in the lead-up to Victoria\u2019s election. But who is behind them?\" \/>A machete-wielding robber, a \u2018tsunami of debt\u2019 \u2026 campaigns echoing opposition talking points outspend major parties<br \/>\nGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast<br \/>\nA man clad in a balaclava and brandishing a machete terrorises a worker at a petrol station before firebombing the building on the way out.<br \/>\nA woman gives birth on the side of the road, unable to reach a hospital due to ambulance ramping and crater-like potholes, which also stop a fire truck in its tracks. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A machete-wielding robber, a \u2018tsunami of debt\u2019 \u2026 campaigns echoing opposition talking points outspend major parties Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A man clad in a balaclava and brandishing a machete terrorises a worker at a petrol station before firebombing the building on the way out. A woman gives &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/05\/alarming-ai-ads-are-flooding-social-media-in-the-lead-up-to-victorias-election-but-who-is-behind-them\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Alarming AI ads are flooding social media in the lead-up to Victoria\u2019s election. But who is behind them?<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":24739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24738"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}