AI Generated Fake News Takes Over A New Zealand Site

A bizarre headline claims a New Zealand valley is no longer safe for overnight stays, with the Department of Conservation (DOC) refusing to explain why. The story paints a picture worthy of a horror movie, quoting a former hut warden and an anonymous DOC worker who hints at a dark secret. As captivating as it sounds, the entire story is a fabrication.

This is just one of many invented stories published on the news section of morningside.nz, a website for an Auckland entertainment precinct. The news section has been overrun with strange, bogus articles that seem entirely out of place.

The Anatomy of AI-Generated Fake News

These stories follow a distinct pattern. They take a real New Zealand place name, like Whakataki, but place it in the wrong part of the country—the story claims it's near Mount Aspiring National Park, but it's actually in the North Island. Another article describes a cave called Echo Hole, supposedly sealed off by DOC, and accompanies it with an AI-generated image of a cave in a lush rainforest. However, as DOC's visitor safety manager Andy Roberts points out, the Waitaki district mentioned is dry and doesn't have rainforests, and no such cave is known to exist.

DOC staff discovered these stories, which consistently portray the department as secretive, often suggesting the discovery of taonga (Māori cultural treasures) as a reason for unexplained closures. None of these stories involving DOC are true.

How a Local Website Was Hijacked

Rod Ballenden, who runs the legitimate part of the morningside.nz site, confirmed it was "hacked." A news section was added without his consent and is being filled with these articles, which are packed with digital ads. The process of removing them has proven difficult.

Cyber security expert Adam Boileau suspects the domain name may have lapsed and been "sniped" by someone who then took control. Unusually, the original site was left intact, with only the fake news section added. Boileau believes this was a deliberate tactic to leverage the site's existing reputation and avoid detection by the original owner. "This is just what happens," he said, describing it as a common occurrence on the "shady modern internet."

The Motivation Behind the Deception

Technology expert Dylan Reeve states that the primary motive is almost certainly financial. "The fundamental thing going on here is revenue harvesting," he says, noting the site is "filthy with ads." The content appears to be AI-generated, designed as "coherent gibberish" to attract clicks with sensational headlines and vaguely plausible content.

Reeve suggests the operation is highly automated. A system might scrape popular topics from sites like Reddit, use them as prompts for an AI to write an article, and generate a corresponding image. "This can all happen completely autonomously," he explains, allowing for a constant stream of new content targeting topics currently in the New Zealand zeitgeist, such as petrol prices and real estate.

Automated Content and Fake Engagement

Many articles touch on culturally sensitive or divisive topics involving iwi, taonga, or rāhui, likely because such content generates strong reactions and attention. The deception extends to the comments section, where angry or supportive comments appear to be fake. Similar comments, often starting with "Honestly" and receiving a reply starting with "Exactly," are repeated across different stories, suggesting they are also part of the AI-driven scheme.

University of Waikato research fellow Hemopereki Simon notes that if AI is generating these comments, it's not surprising they reflect racist tropes, as AI models learn from vast amounts of online data, which includes such biases. "AI will ultimately, to some degree, promote some type of racist tropes," he states.

How to Spot a Fake Story

For anyone encountering suspicious stories about New Zealand's conservation areas, DOC's Andy Roberts offers clear advice. "One of the things you'll notice in these stories is they never quote an actual DOC person," he says. Official DOC press releases always name a person behind the story.

He urges the public to verify any information, especially regarding closures, by visiting the official DOC website directly rather than relying on second-hand sources. While closures do happen for safety reasons or repairs, there is a high standard for such actions, and they are always officially announced.

This article is a rewritten version of a report from RNZ.