Following his first trip to the Middle East, U.S. President Joe Biden became the target of numerous rumors online. Viral online posts falsely claimed that a video of Joe Biden had been altered to superimpose the President's face on an actor's body using Artificial Intelligence.
Video of Biden Unblinking Spark Conspiracy Theories
A Twitter user compared two videos of the president and said: “Two videos posted within a couple of hours of each other. I mean… you tell me what’s going on here.” The user later posted a compilation of the two videos and added: “Here are the two videos back and forth. Pay attention to his physical appearance and his voice. Again, both are supposedly from today, both only a few hours apart. What the hell is happening here?”
On Wednesday, July 26, 2022, the official Twitter account of the Democratic Party posted a 17-second video of Joe Biden discussing the January Capitol riots.
Social media users have questioned the video and expressed doubts about the video’s legitimacy. According to the BBC, the media, including prominent pundits from the right-wing U.S. television channels Newsmax and One America News, shared the posts thousands of times.
According to a BBC report, the video is authentic, although some social media users argued that Biden looks different in another video published on the same day. Some users also claimed that the second video was fake. However, the BBC has confirmed that the differences in the President's appearance are the result of the lighting used during filming.
A Twitter user zoomed in on President Biden's eyes and wrote, “The normal Human Being BLINKS their eyes 15 to 20 times a minute. On the other hand, there's Joe Biden.”
According to the same report, people blink approximately 12 times a minute. However, it is also possible not to blink for an extended period such as the17 seconds featured in this video.
The news outlet also pointed at a cut halfway through the clip and confirmed that President Biden was not holding continuous eye contact for the whole time. A longer version of the video on The White House’s YouTube channel shows President Joe Biden blinking many times.
"A lot of people think you can spot a deepfake because it doesn't blink, which is actually not correct. A badly made deepfake might not blink, but that is not a categorical sign that it's a deepfake," Sam Gregory, an expert on deepfakes, told the BBC.
Biden’s Mismatched Skin Tone Sparks Debates
Other users have previously widely circulated a TikTok video citing a CNBC interview in which a skin tone mismatch on Biden's neck proves that the video is a deepfake or body double.
The claim has been debunked by Reuters. The video was filmed on December 5, 2019, as an interview with CNBC's John Harwood. During the interview President Biden discussed, among other topics, tax inequality and the imminence of a recession.
Reuters explained that the apparent skin tone mismatch in the video was due to the way the interview set was lit. A similar shadow to the one on Biden’s chin and neck is also visible on Harwood, seen at the 3:30, 11:30, 15:20 marks. The report also noted that the shadow could be seen moving consistently throughout the video with the men’s movements.
Conspiracy Theories Chasing Joe Biden
In 2021, a video of Joe Biden answering reporters’ questions in front of the White House was claimed to be filmed in front of a green screen. According to the BBC, users believed this trick was pulled by the White House to “shield the president from the public because of his age, ill health, or public gaffes.”
Some of the conspiracy theorists believed that Joe Biden was arrested or executed or that he was a puppet for an evil elite controlling the world. However, those claims were baseless and false. Although the videos were not fabricated, technology was used to manipulate and twist the politician's words and actions.
How Are Deepfakes Created?
According to The Conversation, deepfakes are created by programs that accumulate a library of existing photos, videos, and audio clips to learn a person’s manners of speech, expression, and behavior.
Misbar has previously explained how audio deep fake became a new method of spreading false information by utilizing a dataset of vocals that most fact-checkers would have difficulty debunking.
Our blog on Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes explained that developing critical thinking is crucial to preventing misinformation spread, especially when it comes to deepfakes. “Media experts also confirm that adopting an advanced visual culture is essential to spot deepfakes and altered videos,” the blog concluded.
Misbar’s Sources:
The Democrats
BBC
The White House
Vice
Reuters
The Conversation
CNBC
Tea Partiest
Misbar
Shayan Sardarizadeh
Read More
Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes
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