Deepfake Donald Trump calls for climate agreement exit

Occurred: May 2018

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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.ย 

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.ย 

Deepfake

Deepfakes (a portmanteau of 'deep learning' and 'fake') are images, videos, or audio which are edited or generated using artificial intelligence tools, and which may depict real or non-existent people. They are a type of synthetic media.

Source: Wikipedia ๐Ÿ”—

Operator: Vooruit
Developer: Vooruit

Country: Belgium

Sector: Politics

Purpose: Mobilise supporters

Technology: Deepfake - video; Machine learning
Issue: Mis/disinformation; Ethics/values

Transparency: Marketing

Research, advocacy ๐Ÿงฎ

Page info
Type: Incident
Published: June 2023