Claim
A video shows football star Cristiano Ronaldo voicing his support for Palestine, and saying, “…I stand with Palestine. I always pray for them, and I will continue to do so… I hope you will also stand by the people of Palestine and keep them in your prayers. Together, let’s stand for humanity”
Such posts can be seen here and here.
Also Read: AI-Generated Video Of Protest Against ‘Marathi Imposition’ Shared As Real
Fact
On carefully analysing the viral clip, we noticed that the last few frames appeared to be a reverse play of the initial footage, raising our doubts about its authenticity.
A Google Lens search on the keyframes of the viral clip led us to an Instagram post by AlKass Sports Channels (@alkasstvsports), dated February 14, 2025, stating, “Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo in a special interview with AlKass Channels after his team Al Nassr’s 3-2 victory over Al Ahli in Jeddah.”
We compared the keyframes of the viral video and the Instagram video by AlKass Sports Channels, and found the visuals to be the same. In the clip posted by AlKass Sports Channels, however, there was no mention of Palestine.
We then checked the audio heard in the viral clip on AI detection tool Resemble.ai, which termed it “fake.”
The Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) of the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), of which Newschecker is a part, checked the media on Deepfake-o-meter and found that 5 out of 6 audio classifiers gave high confidence scores for the audio being manipulated with A.I. They also pointed out multiple visual tell-tale signs indicating manipulation – Ronaldo’s lips tend to quiver, and his teeth were blurry. Additionally, there seem to be frame skips in the video track at some points.
Hence, the viral clip claiming to show Cristiano Ronaldo speaking on Palestine was found to be manipulated using AI.
Sources
Instagram Post @alkasstvsports, Dated February 14, 2025
Resemble.ai Website
DAU Analysis
