On the #Telegram chat app called 'End Iluminati' we search for 'New Zealand'.
We find the same video uploaded over a month and a half earlier, on 13 August 2021. This oldest version was viewed more than 10K. 4/...
People in this group might believe in a #ConspirayTheory: "The #Illuminati are the supposed overlords controlling the worldβs affairs, operating secretly as they seek to establish a New World Order."
Those crack-smoking elites! πΏ5/...
We examine the origin of the two videos used in this widespread video compilation. We will start with the upper part and then examine the lower part.
The upper party is easy: we google for videos of Bill Gates and Jacinda Ardernπ³πΏ. 6/...
The first result appears to be a video uploaded on YouTube by the Gates Foundation. It is a capture of a panel discussion in New York:
Looking from 0:14 (left), the footage appears to match the top video on social media (right).β 7/...
Also the sound comes from this panel discussion and is authentic. β
What about the crack-smoking video?
We try different reverse image searches, but the quality is too low. No results. π’ 8/...
Therefore, we search on YouTube with the query 'Jacinda Ardern Smoking'.
This brings us to the video 'Jacinda Ardern Smokes Cannabis' uploaded on 9 October 2020 on YouTube on the channel Genuine Fake. The channel says clearly it contains #deepfakes. 9/...
You can watch the video here:
It's not allowed under π10/...
This video is 2:23 and thus longer than the 57-second compilation video. But certain fragments are similar.
Five days later a shorter version (51 seconds) was uploaded to another YouTube channel: New Zealand Green. Here it's not indicated this might be a #fake. 11/...
That channel contains activist videos of demonstrations pro legalisation of cannabis π¨.
Both YouTube channels appear to be linked. The New Zealand Green channel advertises "my new channel - Genuine Fake" π₯.
β‘οΈSo the video was probably uploaded twice by the same person. 12/..
So one version (left) comes from a channel that makes it clear that it is a #fake: both by the name of the channel and by a caption "Really Fake" on the video π₯.
The other video (right) does not show anything that at first sight points to a forgery. 13/...
At 0:18 in the Telegram video, we see the woman making a movement with her right hand (yellow frames). We also see this in the video of 'Genuine Fake' at 0:55.
This is not in the video of New Zealand Green.
Why is this important? 14/...
β‘οΈSo the video of 'End Illuminati' was based on the video where, at first glance, you are told that it is a #fake.
That is an indication of deliberate #deception. ββ15/...
We have a strong indication that this is a #deepfake, but can we prove it βββ 16/...
If we upload a screenshot of the video to the #Bing search engine, it suggests that we are seeing New Zealand Labour politician Jacinda Ardern.
There is no evidence that this is a fake. π17/...
A local newspaper wrote about the video: "Now, it's clear within a few seconds that this isn't Jacinda Ardern. Firstly, the real Jacinda's nail game is much too strong to use press-ons of that nature. Secondly, it's just obviously not her face." 18/...
Those who have already seen a lot of footage of the New Zealandπ³πΏ PM could thus easily unmask the deepfake, according to Otago Daily Times.
But those less familiar with Ardern could just as easily fall for it, according to many comments.
Local knowledge =ποΈ
19/...
From the comments under the video on the YouTube channel Genuine Fake, the person who posted the video online also explicitly admits that it is a deepfake from an 'educational video' on 'joint-rolling'.
π€‘The person also admits to liking 'to brew a conspiracy theory'.
Someone responds with the 'recipe' for this: 'three teaspoons of paranoia, two cups of social media and a sprinkle of "new world order"'. π΅βπ«21/...
Comparing a photo of Jacinda Ardern (left) with the face in the video (right), two conspicuous patches of skin π¨) are missing from her neck.
Missing details like that could indicate a forgery. β22/...
We also load the video into the deepfake detection tool of deepware.ai.
Accoring to him: "As you know it's most just luck / trial and error." A simple Reverse Image Search in #Yandex did the trick! 28/...
@Techjournalisto@tthompsonfuller@AfpFactual The original footage was uploaded to YouTube on May 6, 2019 by a certain Kush Evelia titled '420 ASMR SMOKE SESH HOTBOXING MY BATHROOM | JOINT + JOINT BUBBLER'. 29/...
"Three drunken Ukrainian supporters were arrested in Qatar. The reason? They made a Nazi salute and vandalised posters at the Al Bayt stadium by drawing a Hitler moustache on the World Cup mascot La'eeb. When arrested, they showed no resistance."
The video was previously uploaded on the social networking site TikTok on the account '@batyab.e.a.r', we can tell by the caption with the TikTok logo π¨. 3/...