Politics

Manipulated vision of a child swearing at the First Lady telling her to shut up has gone viral on social media.

The video doesn't appear to use any artificial intelligence and is just an audio dubbing which means it is a cheapfake not a deepfake. The original footage is from a Diwali speech the first lady gave at the White House.

The audio track is edited to include a child inappropriately screaming at a teacher, telling her to “shut the f*** up”  dubbed over the audio of Biden’s remarks. As for the vulgar remarks heard, the original footage is from a 2019 YouTube clip where the child swearing is seen taken out of the classroom for bad behaviour. 

The video was uploaded by a satirical Donald Trump account along with the caption “THANKS, KID!!!” With laughing emojis and has gained nearly 20,000 likes. Comments conclude that the clip is real and condone the child’s appalling behaviour.

The rude remarks, dubbed over unrelated vision, show a high level of disrespect as Biden speaks, however, it is clear the vision has been manipulated, especially at the end as the video is slowed down to make her reaction seem more dramatic. The video quality also deteriorates during the slow motion section.

Cheapfakes are growing increasingly dangerous as they are available to anyone with limited editing skills and technologies, especially in the lead up to US midterm elections.

A political group has created a deepfake ad targeting Mayor Adrian Perkins in north Louisiana in what’s believed to be the first time such technology has been used.

People Over Politics released the anti-Perkins parody ad. In the video, a lookalike ‘student’ who sounds similar and looks similar to Perkins is called to the principal's office after his report card is ‘failing Shreverport’. The principal awards him an F in keeping community safe, creating jobs and laughs when he asks about potential job offers.

The short clip discloses the content is a deepfake and not Perkins. Due to the satirical nature of the content, it is unlikely misleading with comments on social media claiming the commercial was funny. Political deepfakes are a major concern, especially close to election time as voting can be impacted due to digital manipulation.

A doctored video showing Jill Biden clapping and singing along to an anti Joe Biden chant has circulated online. 

The video is a cheapfake and has been digitally altered to replace the original audio with aggressive boos, profanities and a large crowd of people, swearing, cheering and clapping in unison in disdain for the President. On social media people label Jill a ‘fake doctor’ and say the election was ‘stolen by the dirty democrats and their tactics’.

The original clip, uploaded by the NFL shows the First Lady standing along cancer survivors to lead the ‘Fly Eagles Fly’ first song before the game. Everyone seems to be in good spirits and no profanities can be heard in relation to Joe Biden. 

On closer analysis to the doctored vision, it is clear the clapping and lip syncing is off with the anti-Biden chant. The smiles and hand gestures of each person in view simply doesn't suit the rude chant that can be heard or the pace the audio is being played at. The danger of cheapfakes and shallowfakes lie in the fact that they are very easy to create, unlike deepfakes they use no artificial intelligence and can comprise of recontextualizing, relabelling, slowing and speeding vision down and in this specific case, simply swapping one audio track for a totally different one.  

A video that has surfaced on TikTok shows footage of Joe Biden singing the world famous children’s song has been identified as a deepfake.

The PM announces he will sing the national anthem but instead begins to sing the opening lines of Baby Shark in the doctored vision where his lips match the words. A news strap at the bottom of the screen makes it look like a broadcast clip with a logo of an onion in the corner which looks similar to that of the satirical website. The original footage is from Biden’s speech on lowering costs for families at a community college in Irvine, California.

From comments on social media it is clear that some people believe the deepfake was actually Joe Biden singing with some claiming this is ‘proof’ he is suffering from dementia and others baffled how he is still a world leader. The video has been removed from TikTok and Instagram. As new technologies continue to advance, deepfake political videos that spread misinformation and influence elections are an increasing concern. The creator's intentions

Who created the deepfake?

Ali Al-Rikabi
Synthetic Voices

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

No

How was the deepfake created?

GitHub
Video Editing
Wav2Lip
HQVoice
Talknet
Stable diffusion

Ukraine’s intelligence of the Ministry of Defense disrupted Russians’ deepfake attempt to discredit relationships with Turkey.

The Russian agents posed as Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine, and tried to contact one of the founders of the Baykar defence company, which produces Bayraktar drones, Haluk Bayraktar via a live video call using deepfake technology.

A statement noted it was easy to debunk this case as the perpetrators reportedly had low levels of training and exposed themselves during the conversation by using incorrect Russian pronunciations of familiar Ukrainian phrases. The conversation with Bayraktar didn't go as expected. That's because the Russians were confronted by an intelligence operative who posed as Bayraktar’s press secretary. During the conversation he decided to agitate the imposters by asking them "What happened to the Crimean bridge?"

It is believed the purpose of this deepfake was an attempt to discredit cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey. At the end of the conversation, the Russian operatives were informed that they had been exposed and would be prosecuted.

Who created the deepfake?

Russian agents

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

No

Was the deepfake consensual?

No

How was the deepfake created?

Real-time video
Deepfake Software

A breaking news deepfake video has circulated on social media spreading misinformation about Kyrsten Sinema who reportedly spoke on Bipartisanship then shortly after, enthusiastically introduced Donald Trump. 

The clip shows vision of Sinema holding up People magazine with a Fox 10 Phoenix news strap stating “Kyrsten Sinema appears with Donald Trump.” A PaulLeeTeeks watermark can be seen at the bottom right hand corner. The original video is from a 2015 presidential campaign rally in Las Vegas where a Trump supporter can be seen on the stage holding up the copy, not Sinema. 

The creator took to social media describing the deepfake as satirical in nature, addressing ‘newcomers’ who couldn’t grasp the concept of ‘political satire’ with profanities. “It’s fun, it’s funny – and if you’re being honest it’s not that far off from really happening,” Paul Lahticks said. The video is no longer online Lahticks’ Twitter account has been suspended. The response online is mainly negative with praise to NBC News Disinformation reporter, Ben Collins, alerting the public that this content is fake and generating high traction. Several people tweet they will be reporting the content and admitting on first glance it didn't appear fake, but some commended him on his previous parody work.

Who created the deepfake?

Paul Lahticks

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

No

Was the deepfake consensual?

No

How was the deepfake created?

Deepfake Software
Video Editing
File Footage

Donald Trump has retweeted a cheapfake video of a racist baby that has subsequently been taken off social media.

The video shows a white toddler chasing a black child down the street, alongside a CNN news strap that reads, “Terrified todler runs from racist baby.” (yes, toddler is spelt incorrectly in this fake news). The doctored video then ends by saying "America isn't the problem... Fake news is".

CNN was quick to debunk the fake news and shared the original story. Twitter labelled it as manipulated media as it was regarded deceptively altered or fabricated.

A Brazillian TV presenter had her image and voice falsified to spread disinformation in what is believed to be the first 'deepfake' the country has seen as the election campaign period kicks off this year.

The realistic yet doctored video mixes the voice of Renata Vasconcellos reporting from ‘Jornal Nacional’, with results of a false voting poll from old footage.

TV Globo confirmed that Renata’s video is not original and reported it. Ipec, an institute that conducts electoral polls and is cited in the 'deepfake', has denounced the material in the Misinformation Alert System.

The video spread quickly on social media – one clip found on YouTube had more than 1,400 views in just 12 hours and was already confusing voters. “Isn’t this research from 2018?”, asked a user in one of the post’s comments.

Donald Trump has capitalised on a doctored video that was created off the back of a political stunt by Nancy Pelosi.

While Trump was delivering a speech, Pelosi stood behind him and dramatically ripped up a copy of the President’s speech while he was speaking.

Soon after, an edited video emerged that made it look as if Pelosi was ripping up the speech in response to individual audience stories. Thus, the cheapfake retweeted by Trump, implied that the act was done to pour scorn on American citizens, as opposed to acting out in defiance of the President.

Social media platforms,  Facebook and Twitter, where the video has been shared and seen by many, were criticized for not removing the edited video as it did not 'violate their rules'.

The mayor of Berlin, Madrid and Vienna filed complaints over someone impersonating their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, during what was reported as a 'deepfake' video call. It was not in fact a deepfake it was just a look-alike.

Franziska Giffey, said 'he looked and sounded like Klitschko' on the Webex video conferencing platform that but that she grew suspicious when he spoke of Ukrainian refugees cheating the German state of benefits. He then appeared to call for refugees to be brought back to Ukraine for military service. The Berlin mayor’s office contacted the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, who confirmed through authorities in Kyiv, that the person on the video call was not the real Klitschko. 

José Luis Martínez-Almeida grew suspicious soon after the start of the conversation and interrupted the call. The Madrid mayor’s office filed a complaint with the police.

Michael Ludwig took to Twitter to share news that he had talked via video call to Klitschko but the tweet was soon deleted. Shortly afterwards, the Austrian capital’s official account put out a statement that Ludwig appeared to have been the victim of a “serious case of cybercrime”.

Students were shown a video of President Joe Biden addressing the UN while effortlessly switching between five languages, when Biden can realistically only speak English.

A workshop hosted through the Air Force’s military university provided airmen with an introduction to deepfakes as well as AI technologies that could be used to combat the threat deepfakes can pose.

The company created the Biden video to illustrate that not all deepfakes are harmful and how their universal translator tool can facilitate diplomatic communications. Using footage of someone speaking, the tool transforms it so the subject appears to be speaking a different language in real-time.

Who created the deepfake?

DeepMedia

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

No

How was the deepfake created?

Deepfake Software
Video Editing

A deepfake of Vladimir Putin sees the Russian President morph into James Bond from Casino Royale.

The YouTube video has more than 80,000 views and also includes a link to open source community GitHub for other developers to use and share the deepfake software.

Although the intent of the video may be to entertain, there are concerns about copyright infringement and consent.

Who created the deepfake?

Finargot movies

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

Unknown

How was the deepfake created?

DeepFaceLab
Deepfake Software
Video Editing  

A doctored video of Joe Biden 'sleeping and snoring' during a TV interview has gone viral online after White House social media director, Dan Scavino, shared the clip on Twitter.

The cheapfake shows Biden’s eyes 'closed' as a news anchor repeatedly tells him to wake up and then cuts the interview, telling people he is 'meditating'. The sound of heavy snoring also was added to the clip. The video is made to look like it is live from New York and an official interview with a news strap saying 'The importance of this election'.

The cheapfake was created by splicing together two separate videos. The original, featured above, was from an interview that the same anchor conducted with singer Harry Belafonte from 2011 with Biden’s face overlaid on top. The second was a moment where Biden looked down during a virtual town hall event alongside former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Twitter user @damonimani admitted to mixing two separate clips together and adding sound effects.

‍Russia Today created a satirical deepfake of Donald Trump working at their office during the US election period.

It explores Trump's role as a news presenter in Moscow straight after losing the election to Joe Biden in November. Trump's real voice was used but a mockingly crude caricature was superimposed onto the body of an actor. In the video he is at the beck and call of Vladimir Putin, who offered him the role.

The short film was released to advertise RT's coverage of the 2020 US Presidential Election. The deepfake video came the same time The Washington Post asserted the CIA believed Putin tried to undermine Biden's candidacy in a bid to assist Trump win re-election.

Who created the deepfake?

RT News

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

Unknown

How was the deepfake created?

Deepfake Software
Video Editing
Special Visual Effects

Intent flowchart rating?

Ambiguous  

Donald Trump has claimed the Access Hollywood tape in which he can be heard bragging about sexual assault is now "not authentic.”

The 2005 recording captures audio conversation between Trump and Access Hollywood host Billy Bush whilst en-route to meet soap opera actress Arianne Zucker. Trump recalled seducing a married woman and indicated he might start kissing Zucker. He also bragged about being a star and said "they let you do it. You can do anything. ... Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything."

Initially Trump apologised for the remarks, "I said it, I was wrong and I apologise," he said, acknowledging it was him and excusing it as "locker room talk". But in 2017, a year after his initial apology and with the emergence and uncertainty of deepfake technology, Trump changed his tune saying he now wasn't sure it was him or his voice.

Claiming something is fake when it isn't is known as The Liar’s Dividend - a tactic becoming increasingly popular as people use the excuse of manipulated media to get away with lying.

Access Hollywood responded to the claims, making it perfectly clear the tape is real.

Former Filipino President, Rodrigo Duterte, appeared as the one and only superhero Iron Man in a deepfake video.

The YouTube video shows a side-by-side comparison of Marvel film star Robert Downey Jr and Duterte. Audio is overlayed where 'Duterte' can be heard saying "I am the President", whilst playing the role of the superhero.

Although the intent of the video may be to entertain, there are concerns about copyright infringement and consent.

Who created the deepfake?

LADZ SIMBAJON

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

Unknown

How was the deepfake created?

Visual Effects
Deepfake Software
Video Editing