TV columnist and former Miss France Delphine Wespiser will file a complaint to try to stop the dissemination on social networks of false death notices of her seriously ill companion which would have been generated by AI, her lawyer announced to AFP on Friday.
“Learning that people have announced the death of my lover, while he is alive, by my side, is a violence that I still have difficulty understanding,” writes Miss France 2012 on her Instagram account.
“When you are already fighting against cancer, when every day requires courage, strength and hope, having to also face such fake news and seeing it spread is deeply trying,” continues the woman who participated in and hosted a series of TV shows.
Visibly generated by artificial intelligence according to Delphine Wespiser’s defense, these false contents, which AFP was able to consult, claim to announce the funeral of Roger Erhart, the young woman’s companion for ten years and currently suffering from cancer. We can also see fake funeral ceremonies there.
“Upset calls and condolences”
These “despicable publications (…) going as far as the dissemination of false death notices and false information on the state of health” of Roger Erhart have been circulating for several days, denounced their lawyer, Me Tom Michel, in a press release sent to AFP.
“Every day, they receive distressed calls and condolences, maintaining permanent anguish in an already heavy ordeal,” he continues, calling on “everyone to give no credence to this false information and not to participate in its propagation.”
Me Tom Michel specifies that he will file a complaint against the authors of these forgeries, on the basis of the article of the penal code which has specifically punished deepfakes since May 2024, these misleading montages created by artificial intelligence.
