Our AI generated anti-icing videos are getting great treatment

At first glance, The fight in the video looks shocking. A New York City school principal, brandishing a bat, prevented masked ICE agents from trying to enter the building behind her, and instead of violence, the encounter erupted into cheers from onlookers. “Let me explain to you why they call me Bat Girl,” she told them. In other clips, a server throws a bowl of hot noodles at two officers eating at a Chinese restaurant, and a store owner demonstrates her Fourth Amendment rights. None of the confrontations ended in bloodshed.

It’s also clear that the videos, equal parts tense and bombastic, were created by artificial intelligence. They’re part of a constellation of anti-ICE AI content spreading across social media as the federal occupation of Minneapolis — part of the Trump administration’s assault on immigrants — led to the deaths of two U.S. citizens in January. Renee Nicole Judd, a 37-year-old mother of three, and Alex Pretty, a 37-year-old US Department of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse, were unarmed when government officials shot and killed them.

In America, imagination plays a crucial role in times of political turmoil. The videos, which have had millions of views on Facebook and Instagram, offer a mix of reactionary justice that imagines a digital multiverse where ICE agents are just like the rest of us: not above the rule of law.

Overall, the videos are a way for people to push back on distortions drawn by the Trump administration and MAGA influencers to justify their actions, says AI creator Nicholas Arter. “Over the past decade, social media has played this role by giving a voice to people who lack access to traditional media. It is not surprising that with artificial intelligence, another major technological shift, we are seeing similar patterns repeated, as people use available tools to express feelings, concerns or resistance.” But while they may feel cathartic, the videos themselves are also a kind of distortion. This could have consequences, whether by reinforcing the narrative that people of color are instigators, or making the public more skeptical of actual video evidence.

The account under the name Mike Wayne, whose owner declined several requests for comment, appears to be one of the most prolific posters in the genre. The account has uploaded more than 1,000 videos, often of people of color fighting ICE agents, to its Instagram and Facebook pages since Judd’s shooting on Jan. 7. Tonally, the clips sound like digital counternarratives: ICE agents milling about, an officer getting slapped by a Latina woman, a priest pushing masked officials out the doors of his church, declaring: “I don’t know what god you worship, maybe an orange god, but my god is love.” (In fact, federal agents arrested nearly 100 clergy last week during a protest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, from where religious leaders said an estimated 2,000 people were deported.)

The videos create an alternate timeline where the passion and rage of Americans resisting the federal occupation of their cities does not cost their lives—and accountability actually matters. One of Wayne’s most viewed clips is of an ICE agent fighting white passengers at a sporting event, a vision that seems so surreal that it has been viewed 11 million times in less than 72 hours. “Down with fascism,” says someone in the background. Humor also plays an important role in fan fiction style videos. In a clip posted by meme account RealStrangeAI, four queens wearing neon wigs chase ICE officers through a St. Paul neighborhood.