A deepfake video of United States President Joe Biden where he appears to be swearing at his critics and using expletives generously is being shared on social media after he officially dropped out of the 2024 US presidential election.
BOOM found that the clip is a deepfake made by using an artificial intelligence (AI) generated voice clone of Biden. PBS News, whose logo can be seen in the viral video, also tweeted that the video is a deepfake and condemned the manipulated video.
Biden, on July 21, 2024, announced that he was ending his re-election campaign amid growing calls within his Democratic Party calling for him to step down after he showed signs of cognitive decline with advanced age. The 81-year old, in a post on X, stated he will remain as president until his term ends in January 2025 and will address the nation this week. The US President also endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination.
The 22 seconds video was posted on X by the handle Prison Mitch (@MidnightMitch) with the caption, "Breaking Now: President Joe Biden makes his first video address following dropping out of the Presidential race."
In the viral video Biden can be hear abusing saying, "My fellow Americans, I want to take a moment to address the hateful shit you have been talking about me. Many of you have said I am suffering from brain worms, or that I have apple sauce for brains, Well f*** you, you are all bunch of f*****, end of quote repeat the line, so enjoy President crackels or president b****juice, I really don't give two f**** anymore, bye now."
The doctored clip is being shared as a joke with many in the comments acknowledging that it is a deepfake.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is a deepfake created by synthesising Joe Biden's voice and doctoring his lip movements in the clip to try to match the fake audio.
The video has telltale signs of being a deepfake such as change in the tone of Biden's voice after he says "My fellow Americans", and his lip movements which start blurring and are out of sync with the voice track of the clip.
The viral video has been taken from an address Biden gave on July 15, 2024, after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. In the original video, we can see the same background and hand moments of Biden as in the viral video.
PBS News, whose logo can be seen in the viral video also posted that the video is a deepfake and condemned the altering of the audio from the news video.
"A deepfake video of President Joe Biden bearing our logo is circulating on social media. Biden did not make this statement. PBS News did not authorize the use of this video and we do not condone altering news video or audio in any way that could mislead the audience," PBS News tweeted.
We also used an AI deepfake detector tool by Seattle based nonprofit TrueMedia.org that stated that the audio in the viral video was generated by an AI audio generator.