Blonde hair, maybe oxygenated. Blue eyes. White t-shirt. Citizen Zero could have approx 20 years. On Instagram he has 35,000 followers. In the bio he writes “Real consciousness in a virtual body”. After a few seconds of any video of his you understand better. It’s an avatar, done quite well too. His voice and face are created with artificial intelligence.
It is a declared project, at least in the biography. On YouTube we read “the first avatar who defends Western values”. Of course, a distracted user who suddenly finds it on their Instagram feed might struggle to understand what’s in front of them. Citizen Zero is just the AI version of a genre now defined.
The ecosystem of right-wing creators
The galaxy is quite populated. In recent years there are media and creators close to the right who offer variations of the same content. Short videos on vertical social networks, above all Instagram And TikTok. News, opinions and comments that follow the line of the right. Targeted attacks against politicians or journalists considered enemies. All without distinction defined as “communists”. There is also an additional note. These profiles often do not declare themselves affiliated with networks or parties. They all present themselves as independent. This is the case of Esperiaa media company analyzed in an investigation by Irpi Media and one of Reports. This is the case of You are poor Communistsnow a permanent presence in Atreju.
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Citizen Zero is not only part of this universe but it is Already intertwined with them. In the last few weeks alone he has published two videos in collaboration with Esperia. But there’s more. One of his videos was directly reposted on profile of the League. This is content about the death of Quentin Deranque, a French activist killed by a group of far-left activists. The Instagram stories feed is also aligned. Small list of the last few hours: videos of Giorgia Meloni on the referendum for justice, post by Nicola Porrovideo by Welcome To FavelasAskatasuna meme, account video If I were American I would vote for Trump and videos of Daniele Capezzone.
Ah, obviously the referendum. As Il Fatto Quotidiano underlined, Cittadino Zero is for the Yes to the referendum complete with a sign: “I am a decent person and I vote Yes”. New campaign slogan taken from the words of Nicola Gratteri. The face is therefore now known. Although it is not clear who was born there. Who created it? How did he get enough credit to end up on the pages of government parties?
The right’s old passion for artificial intelligence
Certain. Create a profile with a digital avatar It’s not a new strategy for social media. Already at the end of 2023, Rebecca Galani, a currently missing virtual model, appeared on Italian social media. Yet it is not difficult to launch one certain attention from right-wing politicians to communication campaigns based on artificial intelligence.
In November 2024 the British newspaper The Guardian dedicated a report on the topic: How the far right is weaponising AI-generated content in Europe. Journalists Ben Quinn And Dan Milmo they reviewed the communication campaigns of the European right-wing and far-right parties. It was the year of elections for the European Parliament.
There was no shortage of examples in Italy. In May 2024 we analyzed a post published by Matteo Salvini. He, or rather his team, had used artificial intelligence to create an image of a man with a pregnancy by contrasting it with a photo of a family consisting of a man, a woman and children. Even there the use of artificial intelligence was not declared.
Today it is more difficult distinguish images created by these algorithms. AI tools are part of the palette of many graphic designers. They are used instead of Photoshop to create backgrounds, add elements or edit elements. Of course, a certain propensity for the use of AI to create invented scenes starting from the news can still be seen.
Just in the last week the Lega profile published the image of a black boy with his mouth wide open, scissors in his hand and his shirt stained with blood. Not only does the image of the man not have much to do with those emerging from the news but also the dog breed is wrong. Not only that. Nowhere does it say that artificial intelligence was used.
