Does a video shared to X genuinely show attendees at the 2024 Democratic National Convention chanting "Death to America"? No, that's not true: The video on social media has added audio from a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Oakland, California. An unedited video of former first lady Michelle Obama's speech, which is shown in the video on X, does not include the chanting. An AI detection tool found "substantial evidence" the video had been manipulated by AI tools.
The claim originated in a video shared to X on August 21, 2024, (archived here) with a caption that read:
🚨🚨'Death to America' chant heard at DNC 🚨🚨
Here is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken Thu Aug 22 08:07:00 2024 UTC)
Michelle Obama spoke at the Democratic National Convention on August 20, 2024, in Chicago. Lead Stories watched several unedited videos of her speech, including those posted by CBC News (archived here) and PBS NewsHour (archived here). No version of the actual speech included audio that matched the "Death to America" chants heard in the video on X.
The audio was taken from a video posted by Grabien (archived here), an online news video marketplace where users can buy and sell pre-edited news clips. The video, titled "BLM Protesters in Oakland, Calif. Chant 'Death to America!'" was posted to YouTube on September 1, 2020, (archived here) by Grabien. The video description links to the video (archived here) on the Grabien website with the same title.
The account (archived here) that posted the video with added audio on X included a link to a website for Dilley Meme Team, which is described on its "About" page (archived here) as:
You know who we are, it's why you're here. The Dilley Meme Team brings tears of joy to those we love and tears of REEEEE to those we despise. WE'RE THE TIP OF THE SPEAR, AND WE'RE TAKING IT ALL BACK!
Known as Trump's Online War Machine, our content generates millions and millions of views. Often shared by the man himself, and played at the rallies, we've been fighting fake narratives of the commies and fascists for years - BY ANY MEMES NECESSARY.
The Dilley Meme Team is headed by podcaster and self-described "master troll" Brendan Dilley. A website for The Dilley Show podcast (archived here) also describes the Dilley Meme Team as being:
... an extraordinary collective of creators, armed with an unrivaled sense of humor and a burning passion for engaging in the political discourse of our time. Everyday, they take on the daunting task of challenging their opponents through the power of memes, humorously dissecting political ideologies and shedding light on the absurdities that surround us.
TrueMedia, a non-profit and non-partisan AI detection tool analyzed the video clip and found "Substantial Evidence" (archived here) that generative AI tools had been used on the audio track of the video. Below is a screenshot of the analysis by the tool.
(Source: TrueMedia.org screenshot taken Thu Aug 22 23:09:14 2024 UTC)
Other Lead Stories fact checks about the 2024 Democratic National Convention can be found here.
