A doctored video showing US President Joe Biden mocking transwomen and making derogatory transphobic remarks at a recent address is circulating with claims that he has come out against the transgender community.
Several Facebook posts have lauded Biden for the transphobic comments that he can be heard making in the morphed video.
BOOM found that the video has been edited and overlaid with an audio where Biden is heard making the transphobic remarks. We accessed the original clip, where Biden is heard talking about the aid offered to Ukraine by US and NATO.
In the morphed viral video, Biden can be heard saying, "You will never be a real woman. You have no womb, you have no ovaries, you have no eggs. You are a homosexual man twisted by drugs and surgery into a crude mockery of nature's perfection." He adds that people make fun of transgender people behind their backs and their parents are ashamed of their existence. "Deep inside you feel the depression creeping up like a weed ready to crush you under the unbearable weight. Eventually it will be too much to bear. You will buy a rope, tie a noose, and plunge into the cold abyss. Your parents will bury you, heartbroken but relieved that they no longer have to live with the unbearable shame and disappointment," he is heard saying in the chilling transphobic rant.
The video is viral on Facebook with the caption, "At last the first President in the world has said it, in clear, simple and unmistakable English. Homosexuality is not natural and is also a debasement of mankind and has no place in modern civilization. I admire the force and beauty of this communication. You can't beat the Americans when it comes to effective communication. Enough of the hypocrisy that the world has had to endure. This should go viral to alert the gullible being deceived by certain immoral human right. I don't have right over the video but listen to it and share."
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The video is also circulating on Twitter.
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Fact Check
BOOM found that the clip has been edited and Biden made no such transphobic remarks. The audio in the clip has been overlaid and Biden is talking about Ukraine in his original address.
A reverse image search on Google of a screenshot from the clip led us to a report by CNBC published on January 25, 2023. The article headlined as, "U.S. will send Abrams tanks to Ukraine ahead of expected Russian offensive," spoke about the aid provided by USA and NATO to Ukraine's war effort. January 24 marked 11 months of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Biden took the opportunity to thank nations like Germany for their support to Ukraine.
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Taking a cue from this, we looked for clips that had the entire address, and found a video on YouTube uploaded by Voice of America.
We also found a transcript of this address on the official POTUS website. Read here. It must be noted that Biden did not speak about the trans community in this video at all.
Visuals of the flags in the background and the presence of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd James Austin III are the same in the viral clip and the original clip. Biden's hand gestures at the 0:51 mark of the viral clip and 4:56 of the original clip are also the same.
Here is a comparison of the two:
Deepfake Video Of Biden?
A report by ABC News quoted digital forensics experts who claimed that the video was created using "a new generation of artificial intelligence tools, which allow anyone to quickly generate audio simulating a person’s voice with a few clicks of a button." They also mentioned ElevenLabs, a platform that uses AI for voice synthesis and cloning. It is possible that this video was created using a platform like this.
According to The Verge, ElevenLabs' technology was already being used on 4chan to imitate the voice of celebrities. In lieu of this, the platform released a series of new guidelines on Twitter to ensure that their tech was not used for malicious purposes.
BOOM also spoke to Dr Dominic Lees, deepfake researcher and Associate Professor of Filmmaking at the University of Reading, UK, who confirmed that the video had been digitally altered. Lees also explained that two open source deepfake algorithms were used to make this video. "The first is a voice cloning process, which takes a sample of Joe Biden's voice as a training sample - this can be achieved quite quickly with just 30 seconds of data. The trained algorithm is then able to translate text to speech - here, the false transphobic text. The second process is to use a Generative Adversarial Network process to alter the mouth movements of Biden from the source video to the point where a match is created with the deepfake audio."
Further, the transphobic text used for Biden's fake speech has been found on several websites online. A keyword search on Google led us to a Reddit post that was a word-for-word copy of Biden's statement.
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Excerpts of this statement can also be found here and here. BOOM could not independently verify where this statement originated from.
BOOM also spoke to Henry Ajder, advisor and speaker specialising in generative AI and synthetic media revolution, who said, "This video is a clear example of text to speech voice cloning combined with synthetic lip synchronisation." He also added, "The subject matter of this deepfake is clearly contradictory to Biden’s position on transgender individuals and the low quality of the video fails to obscure imperfections with the rendering of teeth and accurate mouth movements for certain phrases.”
There is no evidence of Joe Biden making transphobic comments in the past as well. In fact, his speeches and addresses indicate that he is pro LGBTQ+. On March 31, 2022, which marked the International Transgender Day of Visibility, Biden addressed trans folk in the United States and said that they were "deserving of dignity, respect, and support."
In a June 2021 address, he is heard saying, "Pride Month stands for love, being able to love yourself, love whomever you love, and love this country enough, to make it more fair, and more free and more just," while also adding how Pride month stood for "courage and justice."