# Alarming AI ads are flooding social media in the lead-up to Victoria’s election. But who is behind them?

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/alarming-ai-ads-are-flooding-social-media-in-the-lead-up-to-victorias-election-but-who-is-behind-them/
- Published: 2026-09-05T20:00:46+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-05T20:15:37+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/06/fix-victoria-ai-ads-flooding-social-media-election-who-is-behind-them
- Topics: AI, Art, Culture, Elections, Politics, Software, Technology

## Key points

- AI-generated ads flood Victorian social media before the state election
- Fix Victoria spent up to $100,000 in August, run by ex-IPA staff
- Legal loophole means funders may never be publicly disclosed

## Summary

Ahead of Victoria's state election, a wave of alarming AI-generated ads depicting crime, health system collapse and government debt is spreading across social media, and Guardian Australia has traced them to two groups whose funding and political links remain largely opaque. One group, Fix Victoria, reportedly spent up to $100,000 publishing ads in August alone, more than most major parties and candidates, while a second group, Better Victoria, is spending heavily to contrast Labor spending priorities with underfunded roads, schools and hospitals. This matters because voters are being targeted with emotionally charged, dramatised imagery echoing opposition talking points, without clarity on who is bankrolling the campaigns or why.

Fix Victoria is staffed by former senior figures from the conservative Institute of Public Affairs thinktank, including registrant Deborah Henderson, communications director Andrew Hudgson and advocacy head Gideon Rozner, who has previously voiced support for the Liberal party's new leader, Jess Wilson. The group says it is "issues-driven, not politics-driven", focused on crime, corruption and debt, including a forecast $199bn state debt figure, but a gap in Victoria's electoral laws means groups need only register as third-party campaigners if they explicitly back or oppose a party or candidate, so funding sources may never be disclosed. The Centre for Public Integrity's Catherine Williams noted the state's disclosure rules are narrower than federal equivalents, where donation transparency rules have previously exposed a major donor behind a third-party campaign.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.