Beijing targets Montreal Youtuber with sexually explicit deepfakes

A Montreal YouTuber is the latest target of the Chinese communist government’s intimidation tactics, suffering over a year of sexually explicit deepfakes aimed at silencing her sharp criticism.

Source: YouTube

A Montreal YouTuber is the latest target of the Chinese communist government’s intimidation tactics, suffering over a year of sexually explicit deepfakes aimed at silencing her sharp criticism of Beijing.

Yao Zhang regularly discusses Chinese affairs on her YouTube channel, which has about 175,000 subscribers, sharing her support for Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Uyghur community.

“China isn’t a democratic country. Everyone suffers in that regime,” Zhang told Radio-Canada during an interview on Sunday at an undisclosed location for her protection.

“I have to be very, very careful,” she said. “I stopped all communications with the Chinese community because I don’t know who I can trust.”

The 39-year-old once studied accounting at McGill University but made a dramatic shift after the COVID-19 pandemic, and began speaking out against Chinese President Xi Jinping and his government online.

“I’m with Taiwan, I’m with the Uyghurs, I’m with Hong Kong. I’m against the Chinese government,” she said.

However, she became the subject of sexually explicit, AI-generated deepfake images in September 2024, which were circulating online, presumably at the hands of Beijing.

“It wasn’t just one photo. There were many, many of them,” she said.

While anonymous accounts shared the images, they often appeared beneath posts from official Canadian government accounts, including that of then-prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Zhang said she had no doubt the People’s Republic of China was running the smear campaign.

Her assumptions were later confirmed in March of this year when Global Affairs Canada released a statement addressing Beijing’s new “spamouflage” tactics. The PRC was found to be using sexually explicit AI-generated images to target Chinese dissidents and other critics in Canada.

“Spamouflage has been publicly reported over a period of several years by technology companies and threat intelligence experts who have connected the activity to the People’s Republic of China,” reads the statement.

“The most prominent tactic used in the campaign has been to create fabricated (“deepfake”) videos using AI to generate a likeness of a real person, which is then used to promote false narratives. These AI generated videos, which are intended primarily to undermine the credibility of a real person, are posted on YouTube and TikTok.”

Zhang and her family were also doxed in the intimidation campaign, making public her date of birth, phone and passport numbers.

While she has some protection in Canada, Zhang still has family in China who don’t share that luxury, with several having already received death threats from PRC authorities. Zhang said she knows she wouldn’t be able to return home without retribution.

“I’ll go to prison,” she said. “I’ll be like all those who have wanted to change China.”

Meanwhile, the Carney government confirmed last month that it has no timeline for creating a public registry of foreign agents, meaning Canadians will continue to be vulnerable to foreign interference.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree confirmed the Liberal government’s promise to appoint a foreign interference transparency commissioner is still “going through a process.”

The legislation, passed in June 2024, allows for a new foreign interference transparency commissioner, as well as amendments to the Criminal Code and the Canadian Security Intelligence Act to make foreign interference an offence. It also provides for the creation of a public registry listing individuals who have arranged to work in Canada as agents on behalf of foreign governments.

Several of Canada’s Five Eyes intelligence community partners already have such lists and requirements. The United States implemented a foreign agent registry in 1938, Australia in 2018, and the United Kingdom in 2023.