How Bad Movie Dubbing Led to the Fake Biden Campaign Robocalls

Jordan Howlett, a 26-year-old with 24 million followers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, is very careful about the brands he works with. He’s signed deals with Domino’s Pizza, Google and WingStop and makes his living creating videos on subjects such as how to “open jars like a pro” or the best way to “properly eat Chipotle bowls.” So he was spooked when he began receiving messages asking him why he was advertising a supposed cure for blindness on Facebook and Instagram.

Howlett clicked on one of the links to the videos in question and listened in horror as a voice that sounded just like his described how “top researchers from Cambridge” had discovered a seven-second ritual that could give anyone perfect vision. The video, which consisted of stock images of brain X-rays and middle-aged people squinting into their cellphones, was poorly edited. But the audio was utterly convincing, according to Howlett. “When I heard my voice, I was terrified,” he says. “They could theoretically get me to say anything.”