PRESENTER and author Graham Norton has won a court order in California to take legal proceedings against Facebook owner Meta after a page on the social media platform made false claims about him.
The Cork man, who has a home in the Sheep’s Head village of Ahakista, said a string of false posts by ‘The Westminster Wire’ caused ‘very significant alarm, distress and anxiety’ to both him and his elderly mother.
Some of the posts on the fake Facebook page concerned his health and one falsely claimed that his mother was dead.
Graham claimed that the account used AI-generated images.
He went on to reveal that the fake account was upsetting for his mum, Rhoda Walker (94), who is a regular Facebook user, and has seen some of the false claims about her son on her feed.
‘In particular, the publications have had a deeply upsetting impact on those close to me,’ Graham said in a statement.
‘My 94-year-old mother uses Facebook and has been confronted with reports of her own death,’ he told the court.
The BBC chat show host, who grew up in Bandon, explained that his friends have seen ‘false accounts of my ill health and the ill health of my husband’.
He added that the account posts multiple times a day.
‘They often target me with fabricated statements, and AI-generated images place me in false scenarios and false attributions of offensive, racist or otherwise deeply objectionable views and conduct,’ he said.
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