The Surreal Saga Of 'Darla,' The Fake Anti-Union Amazon Warrior

• Meet 'Darla,' Amazon's number one fan

  
  via @AmazonFCDarla

  Darla joined Twitter in March, just as Amazon was getting dragged online and in the media for inhumane working conditions exposed by employees of the tech giant. The convenient timing of her arrival to the conversation was the first red flag. 

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  via @AmazonFCDarla
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  via @AmazonFCDarla
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  via @AmazonFCDarla
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  via @AmazonFCDarla

• Skeptics immediately found Darla very sus indeed

  
  via @AmazonFCDarla

  There was something very fishy about Darla, and it wasn't just her dead eyes and creepy smile. People on Twitter immediately spotted the strange digital artifacts in Darla's profile picture. The particular flaw depicted in this tweet is common in images generated from a neural network. 

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  via @AmazonFCDarla
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• At first, there were jokes

  via @rdwrt

  After enough people caught on that Darla was likely not a real Amazon employee, they stopped engaging in sincere arguments with her (or it...?) and instead turned to cracking jokes about Darla being a bot or a replicant. 

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  via @AmazonFCDarla
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  via @AmazonFCDarla
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  via @revachol_4eva
• via @Ato_dasein
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  via @NunesHeel
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• via @robrousseau
• via @jpbrammer
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  via @That_Edward
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• via @neoliberal_dad

• Was Darla created by Amazon?

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  via @kateconger

  Soon enough, Twitter began theorizing that Darla was just one example of the many fake Amazon 'brand ambassadors' let loose by the company itself to spread pro-Amazon propaganda all over the internet. 

• via @timjsully
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  via @AmazonFCGary
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  via @cherylprice

• The truth comes out...or does it?

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  via @robbleton

  On March 29th, Twitter user @robbleton came forward and claimed to be the satirist behind Darla. Yes that's right, apparently Darla was a comedian pretending to be Amazon pretending to be an employee. Now that's what I call 'deepfake.'

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  via @robbleton
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• via @ALL_CAPS
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  via @PunishedNick

• RIP 'Darla'

  There was a problem rendering this video - it may have been deleted.
  via @robbleton

  Twitter deactivated the Darla account and several others for violating their terms. Darla is dead, but we still have questions. Is @robbleton the real Darla? Or is it just another ruse? And even if this person is behind Darla, that still doesn't account for the dozens of other fake Amazon employee accounts. We don't know what's real anymore.

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