{"id":759784,"date":"2026-06-25T17:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759784\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:25:10","slug":"wake-the-fk-up-grim-one-nation-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759784\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Wake the f**k up\u2019: Grim One Nation theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ella<\/a>Ella McIlveen<\/a><\/p>\n

A Greens senator has issued a blunt warning to Australians amid One Nation\u2019s dramatic surge in the polls, urging voters to \u201cwake the f**k up\u201d as concerns mount over a possible coordinated online bot campaign.<\/p>\n

Tasmanian senator Pete Whish-Wilson pointed to what he described as \u201ccompelling\u201d circumstantial evidence linking the party\u2019s rapid rise to a sophisticated online influence operation, following an investigation by ABC News Verify.<\/p>\n

During a speech earlier this week, Mr Whish-Wilson said Australian democracy was \u201cat stake\u201d if Australians didn\u2019t \u201cwake the f**k up to what\u2019s going on in the sphere of social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis political party has gone from a vote of around six per cent in the polls to over 30 per cent. That is, a rise of 400 to 500 per cent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unprecedented in Australian political history, and it\u2019s happened in nine months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Whish-Wilson stressed he was not disputing the polling itself, but questioned how such a surge could occur so quickly for a party whose platform and beliefs have remained largely unchanged for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralians have been moving away from the major parties \u2026 we know that they\u2019re disgruntled with politics, but what\u2019s happened defies normal explanation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, people are looking at One Nation as an option, but we\u2019re not asking ourselves why.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone has paid for a massive disinformation campaign or an influence campaign that\u2019s promoting One Nation, they\u2019re not shying away from the massive campaign infrastructure they\u2019ve got around them now in Australia. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re flaunting their relationship with Australia\u2019s richest woman and other billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, an ABC News Verify investigation <\/a>uncovered hundreds of pieces of political content originating from untraceable websites overseas, including Vietnam and Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n

In just one week, researchers identified 400 posts \u2013 many using deepfake AI technology \u2013 designed to promote One Nation and its leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than half of them featured Senator Pauline Hanson \u2026 and they were complete fakes,\u201d Mr Whish-Wilson said.<\/p>\n

Images and videos specifically depicted fake scenarios, ranging from Ms Hanson in hospitals giving money to sick kids \u2013 to inflammatory political messaging around climate change and immigration.<\/p>\n

Many of the posts had attracted hundreds of thousands of likes, comments and shares from Australian voters who appeared to believe the AI-generated content.<\/p>\n

In one image, Ms Hanson is seen in a hospital bed, holding a sign that reads: \u201cI\u2019m battling cancer, pray for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another, an AI-generated version of Ms Hanson is seen holding a sign saying: \u201cDo you love me?\u201d, to which hundreds of Australians commented \u201cYes\u201d, and \u201cwe love you, Pauline.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether these people believe they are engaging with Pauline herself.<\/p>\n

Other images include: An AI-generated \u2018Wanted\u2019 poster for Senator Fatima Payman, and an image announcing the apparent death of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.<\/p>\n

Rahat Masood, senior lecturer in Computer science and engineering at UNSW, said she believed the likelihood of Ms Hanson using such a campaign was \u201chigh\u201d, although Ms Hanson\u2019s office has denied the claims of using bots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality of a rise in polling is that there could be a full campaign running at the back end,\u201d Dr Masood told news.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have bots with the same agenda, who are actively working to improve the image of Pauline Hanson online.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you can detect these bots with the naked eye, but when it comes to campaigns and narratives \u2013 it is really difficult to detect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Masood said AI bots had become increasingly \u201csophisticated\u201d, with many able to mimic the behaviour of an average social media user.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to detect such bots now, given they come from different origins and regions. But there is very strong evidence to say these are originating from a similar narrative and campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Masood said creating these campaigns was as easy as having just \u201cone laptop and a good strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alternatively, foreign companies may be hired to generate the content and make it widespread.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you use these campaigns in a negative way; to promote false information or spread disinformation \u2013 chances are, you\u2019re going to swing the elections,\u201d said Dr Masood.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Ms Hanson] is doing it right now. We can see that. She is using it very smartly.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is going to have very devastating consequences for Australia. If people are not aware of misinformation, they will vote accordingly. <\/p>\n

Similarly, experts told the ABC that the findings were likely \u201cjust the tip of the iceberg\u201d of a broader foreign influence effort targeting Australian politics.<\/p>\n

Mr Whish-Wilson said the motivation behind the campaign remains unclear, ranging from profit-driven \u201calgorithm monetising\u201d to the possibility of a \u201cnefarious, malicious, foreign-actor campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it a directly funded influence campaign \u2026 to influence our politics? Once again, no one knows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

James Ashby, Ms Hanson\u2019s chief adviser, told the Australian Financial Review<\/a> that One Nation did not spend any money boosting its own content or buying followers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPauline and our social media team have always encouraged organic growth on her Facebook, Instagram and X pages,\u201d he told the outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther politicians pay to boost content and buy followers, however that only attracts bots and overseas followers. Every follower on Pauline\u2019s pages is a real person with the power to provide a real vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read related topics:Pauline Hanson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ella McIlveen A Greens senator has issued a blunt warning to Australians amid One Nation\u2019s dramatic surge in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-759784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}