We also spoke to people behind several accounts cross-promoting or engaging with the 2050 point-of-view videos, which bore out City Hall's conclusion that some were motivated by clicks and profit.

"I mostly post to get a reaction for the sake of engagement which boosts my followers and money," said one, who is paid through Instagram's monetisation scheme based on the ads shown to viewers of their videos.

Another said they co-ordinate with accounts "raising voice against similar issues" but that their online activity is "not politically motivated in any way". Instead, the goal is for other accounts to promote their content "to get as much attention as possible".

Some of the people running accounts with similar content to this, as well as engaging and interacting with the "fake" British patriots, are based in the UK, however.

One person who runs a profile from the West Midlands which posts about "the restoration of Britain's former greatness", told us he co-ordinates with other accounts to push the same political goal. He said they have a group chat on Instagram where they can decide what to post and when.

The accounts they work alongside are based in India, Pakistan and Singapore, as well as Australia and New Zealand, he said.

Prof van der Linden from the University of Cambridge said the "disinformation-for-hire industry" is growing with "paid actors and influencers pretending to be ordinary citizens to manufacture support for an agenda", usually with AI content and bots which attempt to drive traffic.

Research suggests the public are not that good at spotting fakes, with about a 55% accuracy level, said Prof Yvonne McDermott Rees, a law professor at Queen's University Belfast who has studied the impact of deepfakes on trust.

It also suggests that people usually think they are a lot better at spotting fakes than they actually are, she said.