Photo by Alexander Shatov / Unsplash
A network of Instagram accounts is using AI to steal content from human creators and deepfake their faces to make them look like they have Down syndrome. 404 Media was able to determine the accounts are linked because they reuse Instagram bios, videos, and in some cases link to the same OnlyFans competitors pages where they monetize these videos.
404 Media has written multiple stories on the rapidly growing practice of people stealing content from real human creators and using AI to replace their faces with AI-generated faces, posting that AI-modified content to Instagram, and funnelling viewers to adult content platforms where they can be monetized. What started as just a few accounts quickly evolved into an entire industry with specialized tools, advertising strategies, and influencers who sell courses on how to create these fake influencers to get rich quick through what they call “AI pimping.”
Newer accounts in recent months have started catering to increasingly specific niches and fetishes, including accounts of AI-generated women with amputated limbs. The AI-generated Down syndrome accounts are the latest and newest low for Instagram, which allows the rampant content theft that enables this practice and is now fueling a non-consensual fetishization and monetization of (fake) people with disabilities.
The biggest one of these accounts that I’ve seen is called Maria Dopari and has over 148,000 followers on Instagram. That account follows several other accounts with similar name conventions and identical videos, including one simply called Maria, which has over 39,000 followers. The face swaps are pretty convincing and hard to notice, especially when scrolling quickly through Reels, but if you look closely you can see the face sometimes has that too-smooth quality that’s common with AI image generation, as well as slight visual errors, especially around the mouth, tongue, and teeth.
There are plenty of real influencers with Down syndrome on Instagram who share motivational or modeling content. These AI-generated accounts are not trying to imitate that content, but rather are strictly focused on sexualizing the AI-generated personas so they can promote adult content they can then monetize.
“They all criticize my down syndrome until…I decide to wear tight clothes,” text in one of Maria’s videos says while she wraps a t-shirt tightly around her waist to show off her body. “Onlyfan??,” text in another Maria video says as she dances. “No…Onlydown?? Yesss
”At some point, the Maria account also posted the exact same videos as the Maria Dopari account but with a different face. It appears that for three videos posted between March 6 and 8, the Maria account accidentally used a face from one of its other fake personas, called Lana, which posts under several usernames under some variation of lana.down, the biggest of which has of 43,800 followers. The Maria account then continued posting with the face it used regularly. In some cases 404 Media was able to identify the original videos that were being stolen by these accounts.
Another account, called Zeliavideos, which has 112,000 followers, says in its bio “I’m special not because I have Down Syndrome but because I don’t let it define my life.” It links out to a Fanvue page that does not disclose it’s AI-generated, but many of the still images on the Instagram account clearly are. Additionally, several Reels, which have been edited to make the woman in the videos look like she has down syndrome, were posted weeks earlier by a different account with an entirely different face.
Left: An Instagram account using faceswaps to create a persona with Down syndrome. Right: The exact same video posted weeks earlier by a different account with a different face.
Almost none of the Instagram accounts I’ve seen self-identify as being AI-generated, and judging by the comments on the videos, it appears that a lot of people believe they are real. However, unlike Instagram, OnlyFans has a strict policy against AI-generated content unless it features the verified creator and explicitly says it’s made using AI, so these accounts can’t post that content on that platform. They can and do monetize on Fanvue, which does allow people to monetize AI-generated content as long as it's labeled as such. Both Maria Dopari and Maria link out to the same Fanvue account which states Maria has an “AI face.”
“Just a girl with a little something extra, haha
,” the Fanvue bio, which is written in French, says.Instagram bios for other accounts that promote the Maria persona are also written in French, and follow a similar formula, saying she is French, 23 years old, that she has down syndrome and is “neuro-atypique.”
Another account which produces the same type of content on Instagram does disclose that it’s AI generated and that the person behind it does not really have down syndrome. It also links out to a Fanvue page, which includes the following “Disclaimer:”
“By purchasing, you understand that I am an AI modified avatar. I do not actually have don’t syndrome.”
A Reddit community called r/pussydownsyndrom was also started on February 8, and so far includes only two posts, both of which are by the moderator and are promoting content from the Maria persona.
Reddit and the moderator of that community did not respond to a request for comment. Instagram, Fanvue, and none of the accounts I reached out to responded to a request for comment.
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