Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
US President Joe Biden’s expletive-laden video address after he dropped out of the presidential race for the upcoming November election.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker noticed that the lip movements of Biden seemed unnatural and not completely in sync with the speech, raising our doubts on whether the viral video was altered.
We then ran a reverse image search of keyframes, keeping in mind the PBS watermark seen on the bottom left of the viral clip, which led us to this PBS Newshour’s Youtube livestream of Biden’s Oval Office address on July 15, 2024, a day after former President Donald Trump was injured in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Biden’s address can be seen from the 06:46 mark, where he calls for the “need for us to lower the temperature in our politics,” adding that, while candidates might disagree, they “are not enemies, we’re neighbours, we’re friends, coworkers, citizens, and most importantly, fellow Americans…”. Similar videos can be seen here and here.
A comparison of screen grabs of the viral video with the Youtube videos clearly shows that it is the same clip that has been altered, considering Biden’s hand gestures and the background.
Moreover, Biden had announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race close to a week later, on July 21, 2024, further confirming that the viral video was digitally altered.
We then ran the video past an AI content detection tool, TrueMedia, which detected “substantial evidence of manipulation”. We also ran the video past another AI content detection tool, Hive Moderation, which stated that the video is “99.8% likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.”
Also Read: Another Life Lost To Reels? No, Man Seen In Viral Video Did Not Drown In River
Result: Altered Media
Source
Youtube video, PBS Newshour, July 15, 2024
TrueMedia tool
Hive Moderation tool
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
