A video circulating online purportedly showing former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad endorsing an application launched by international businessperson Elon Musk is false and is likely to trick people into an investment scam.
In the doctored video circulating on Facebook and various social media platforms, Bernama TV is made out to be reporting on an anti-poverty investment scheme launched by Musk and endorsed by Mahathir.
However, fact-checking outfit MyCheck found the video uses deepfake technology and other forms of editing.
Deepfakes are media that have been digitally manipulated to replace a person’s likeness or voice with another convincingly.
A cursory check found the audio and the lip movements of the Bernama TV news readers as well as Musk did not match well, but they matched more seamlessly with the Mahathir clip.
However, the ruse was exposed when MyCheck ran the clips through the software “deepWare”, which splits the audio and the video and analyses the two for discrepancies.
It was found that the audio and video clips used were “95 percent deepfake”.
There were other clues that showed that the video was likely doctored, MyCheck found.
The news ticker on the doctored clip, purporting to show that it was a news report on an investment, did not match Bernama TV’s standard news ticker, MyCheck reported.
The Musk clip also shows him speaking at an event called “DealBook Summit”.
A video published by The New York Times of Musk speaking at the summit in November last year showed him in the exact outfit and position as the doctored video, but he did not talk about any investment scheme, MyCheck found.
Additionally, MyCheck found the Mahathir clip was from his speech at the Oxford Union on Sept 18, 2022, and he did not speak about the so-called investment.
As for the Bernama TV news readers, the clip is likely from Dec 25, 2023, broadcast about tourism in Pulau Bangau, Perak. - Mkini
Malaysiakini and MyCheck are part of JomCheck, a fact-checking alliance.
Through JomCheck, Malaysians can submit requests to fact-check a claim by sending a WhatsApp message to the tipline at 017-477 6659 (WhatsApp text only, no calls) or via this link. -
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