The week of January 5th, we saw three high-profile deepfake and bot-generated crises dominating headlines. Just one full week into the new year, it seems one of our PR predictions for 2026 came true.
Released in December of 2025, we felt good about our predictions, but didn’t expect to be sitting here now looking at what we can already learn from these deepfake and bot-generated crises.
Hilton Bot Fallout
After a Hilton franchise in a Minneapolis suburb cancelled the reservations of DHS members, the global hotel brand faced a media and social media firestorm.
Hilton tried to quell the anger by releasing a statement that said the Hampton Inn Lakeville was independently owned and operated, and the actions didn’t align with its values or policies.
When a conservative journalist, posing as a DHS agent, tried to get a room at the Hampton Inn and was denied, covertly recording the whole encounter, the crisis blew up online again. This time, the online anger was driven by bots.
Analysis by PeakMetrics shared with Axios showed nearly 39% of the posts came from automated accounts, and 92% of that content was negative.
Hilton shares dropped 2% in the wake of the crisis.
What We Can Learn:
Any crisis runs the risk of being amplified online by bots.
Bots have the power to magnify emotions and extend the life of a crisis online.
Customers, regulators and markets react regardless of who or what is fanning the flames.
DoorDash Reddit Deepfakes
A Reddit post, reportedly from an employee, claimed a big food delivery company was stealing from drivers and customers and manipulating employees. The post quickly went viral with more than 87,000 upvotes and 5,000 comments. It was also shared widely on X.
Though no company was named, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu quickly responded on X, saying, “This is not DoorDash, and I would fire anyone who promoted or tolerated the kind of culture promoted in this Reddit post.” The company also responded and shared a blog to set the record straight.
The post caught the attention of Casey Newton who reached out to the poster to learn more. The whistleblower provided a blurred out UberEats employee badge and internal documents. After a few red flags and some investigation, Casey realized both of these were fake, AI-generated content.
What Can We Learn:
Casey uploaded the fake company badge to Google Gemini to confirm it had been created by Gemini.
DoorDash was not named in the post and wasn’t the company at the center of the deepfake, but it stood by its decision to be the first to respond, saying, “You have to respond quickly and tell your story to millions of people who are reading the disinformation.”
DoorDash also realized it needed to optimize its response for AI, so it created a blog post to be its source of truth. That blog is still posted.
Minnesota Star Tribune Deepfake Response
Just hours after the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent, an image of the agent unmasked started circulating online. And then came a name, Steve Grove.
By the next morning, two Steve Groves found themselves in the spotlight, being attacked online. One of them was the publisher of the state’s largest newspaper, Minnesota Star Tribune.
The Star Tribune, used to reporting the news, was now at the center of it and quickly put out a statement calling out what it called a “coordinated online disinformation campaign.”
The image at the center of the reports appeared to have been generated by xAI’s generative chatbot, Grok.
What We Can Learn:
When it comes to AI-generated images, anyone and any organization can find themselves at the center of a crisis.
AI is not capable of “unmasking” someone and generating real facial features.
You can’t trust everything you see, even if it is with your own two eyes.
Bottom Line:
- Deepfakes and bots are changing the game in crisis communication.
- Regardless of whether the crisis is sparked by a deepfake or bot or not, they are still playing a role in the spread of mis- and disinformation.
- If your crisis playbook hasn’t been updated to understand how deepfakes and bots work, how they could impact your business and what to do when they do, you will be caught flat-footed, and that can impact your business and reputation long term.
- Have a plan and communicate quickly to your key audiences.