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Meet ‘Amelia’: the AI-generated British schoolgirl who is a far-right social media star

The avatar, created to deter young people from extremism, has been subverted and is breaking out of niche online silos



The origins of the character are ironic, to say they least. An early iteration of Amelia began life in a counter-extremism video game funded by the UK Home Office and created to deter young people aged 13-18 from being attracted to far right extremism in Yorkshire.

"Pathways: Navigating the Internet and Extremism" is a simple multiple choice format game with basic animation. Its players are taken on a journey as characters at a college. They are invited to make decisions in scenarios including whether or download potentially extremist content or join an Amelia character on a rally organised by “a small political group” protesting against changes in society and the “erosion in British values”. ...

However, the Amelia character that has exploded across social media channels in a way that has astonished even the creators of the original game. ...

The volume of “Ameliaposting” has since gone from an average of 500 a day when that account first introduced it to the world to roughly 10,000, starting on 15 January as it hit international audiences. On Wednesday, it hit 11,137 posts on X alone.