Deepfake Donald Trump calls for climate agreement exit

Flemish Socialist party Vooruit created a deepfake video of then US president Donald Trump calling on Belgium to join America in exiting the Paris climate agreement. 

The video, which was posted to Facebook and Twitter and was reputedly intended to 'start a public debate' to 'draw attention to the necessity to act on climate change', ended by calling for people to sign a petition encouraging investment in renewable energies, electronic cars and public transport.

In the English version of the video, Trump said, 'We all know climate change is fake, just like this video.' But he did not in the Flemish language version, apparently leading some users to believe it was real, with some complaining that the then US president should be involved in Belgium's politics. 

Fact check 🚩

• Snopes (2021). Did President Trump Tell Belgium to 'Withdraw from the Climate Agreement'?

Research, advocacy 🧮

• Brookings (2020). Is Seeing Still Believing?

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2018/05/fake-news-spa-on-twitter.html

• https://www.politico.eu/article/spa-donald-trump-belgium-paris-climate-agreement-belgian-socialist-party-circulates-deep-fake-trump-video/

• https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/a-belgian-political-party-just-published-a-deepfake-video

• https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/05/24/a-faked-video-of-donald-trump-points-to-a-worrying-future

• https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/12/deep-fakes-fake-news-truth

• https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/a-potential-new-marketing-strategy-for-political-campaigns-deepfake-videos/