A social media post on Sureena Brackenridge’s accounts about Maya was removed after Full Fact challenged it. The post had presented a nurse as if she were real, even though the story was fictional and the image beside it appeared to be made with AI.
The post, published on 25 June, said Maya was working in a busy city hospital and had spent years on short-term tenancy agreements while trying to find secure, affordable housing for herself and her daughter. It also said that this was the reality for millions of working people and that the landscape had begun to shift in a way that offered real, tangible hope.
Full Fact spots Maya post
Full Fact said Maya does not really exist. It also said the original posts on X and Facebook did not make it clear that the story was fictional, which meant the post could be read as a real account before it was corrected.
After Full Fact contacted Brackenridge, the X post was deleted and the Facebook version was edited to say that Maya is fictional. For readers who saw the first version, the change is simple but important: the account is no longer being presented as a real nurse’s experience.
Brackenridge says no intent
Brackenridge said the aim was to share policy news through a narrative about how it would feel for a person. She told Full Fact: "I’ve been made aware of a post undertaken by a member of my staff." She also said: "I have been made aware the intention was to share policy news, explored through a narrative of how this would feel for a person."
She added: "I believe firmly in transparency and accessibility. There was not any intention to mislead, but rather an attempt to use technology to present policy in an accessible way." That leaves a sharper practical lesson for anyone reading political content on social platforms: if a story is fictional, the label has to be obvious before the post is shared, not added after challenge.
Procedures after the correction
Brackenridge said she had enacted "procedures to ensure this never happens again". The missing detail is how those procedures work, and who now checks whether a post uses fiction, image generation or both before it appears on X and Facebook. Maya’s name may have been invented, but the correction shows how quickly a polished political post can look like a real case if the labeling is not clear.
