AI-Generated Anti-ICE Videos Are Getting the Fanfic Treatment

Across Instagram and Facebook, AI-generated videos show people of color putting ICE agents in their place. Are they cathartic or just adding to a stew of misinformation?

At first glance, the scuffle in the video seems shocking. A New York City school principal, waving a bat, stops masked ICE agents from trying to enter the building, and instead of violence, the encounter erupts with cheers from onlookers. “Let me show you why they call me bat girl,” she says to them. In other clips like it, a server flings a bowl of hot noodles at two officers dining at a Chinese restaurant, and a shop owner flexes her Fourth Amendment rights. None of the encounters end in bloodshed.