Despite his constant assurances over the past four weeks that his country continues to resist the Russians, a video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spread like wildfire during the past hours, calling on his country’s citizens to surrender, and enjoy life.
What raised doubts about his health, and prompted social media giants to intervene.
The news is finally certain
It turned out later that the video was fabricated and had nothing to do with the Ukrainian president, while experts warned of the danger of using the “deep fake” technology in the ongoing information war between the two countries.
They also revealed that the clip posted by some social media users was fake, and was severely manipulated to make Zelensky appear in a speech as if it were real.
A number of hackers were also able to use it on a local Ukrainian news site a few days ago, before its content was permanently removed, according to the newspaper, “The Telegraph”.
“We will not surrender”
In turn, the Ukrainian president responded in a video clip via Telegram to the fabrication, stressing that his forces are defending their land, children and the Ukrainian people, and do not plan to lay down arms until victory, as he put it.
It is noteworthy that the feature of “deep fake” is one of the techniques of artificial intelligence, usually used to produce a video or modify its content completely to show something that does not exist in the first place.
According to the report, there were clear signs of the video being fabricated, including Zelensky’s head, which did not seem proportional to his neck.
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter enter the crisis line
While no party has claimed responsibility for this fabrication, Ukrainian officials had warned weeks ago that Russia might publish what they considered “propaganda and fabrications”, to sow panic and confusion, they said.
It is noteworthy that officials at Facebook, YouTube and Twitter had confirmed that the fabricated video had been permanently removed from their platforms due to its violation of policies.