Deepfakes

Does a social media video show entrepreneur Elon Musk discussing imprisoned internet influencer Andrew Tate? No, that's not true: This appears to be a "deepfake" video of Musk, now the CEO of Twitter. The video uses publicly available footage from a TED Talk with Musk in April 2022. A transcript of Musk's remarks proves that he did not talk about…

Did President Joe Biden go on a transphobic rant live on national television? No, that's not true: A viral video mimicking his manner of speech had the authentic sound replaced with a made-up voice-over, probably utilizing a deep fake technology. The claim appeared in a video published on Instagram on February 5, 2023, under the title: Best Speech Ever The…

Does a video show President Joe Biden singing the popular children's song "Baby Shark" during a news conference? No, that's not true: The video is a deepfake created for entertainment purposes and apparently first posted by a social media creator whose bio explains they regularly post video content that has been artificially created. The claim appeared in an October 17,…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publish a video telling Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their weapons? No, it's not true. The video is an obviously manipulated compilation of audio and video, called a deepfake. Zelenskyy's neck is grossly out of proportion as a side-by-side comparison clearly shows. There is no corroboration of Ukrainian capitulation reported by credible American, Ukrainian, or…

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin announce on March 16, 2022, that Russia, having invaded Ukraine, had capitulated? No, that is not true: No credible independent or official source has reported such a statement by the Russian president. The video uses video from Putin's earlier speech, altered using so-called "deepfake" technology, so that it appears Putin is saying the words. A…

Is a video of Mark Zuckerberg admitting he has total control of the stolen data of billions of people thanks to Spectre real? No, it is a deepfake made for an art project that seeks to tests Facebook's policies on false news when it comes to faked videos. The video in question can be seen here in an Instagram post…

Did President Donald Trump mock Belgium for not getting out of the Paris Climate Agreement? A video that seemed to show just that was faked by the Belgian political party SP.a ("Socialistische Partij, anders", translated: "Socialist Party, different") to promote a petition campaign urging the Belgian government to take more climate measures. On May 20, 2018 the official twitter account…