Ukraine 24 news agency reported on its Facebook page that its TV channel and website had been hacked to broadcast Zelensky's “message”. Picture: Ukraine 24 (Facebook)
TECH giant Meta’s online security team have been busy after manipulated deepfake videos surfaced on its social media platforms showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin declaring peace and urging soldiers to put down their weapons.
In the Zelensky video, he appears behind a podium. However, the pixelated footage shows his head too large for his body, while his voice is recognisably deeper.
The president responded on his official Instagram account and called it “childish provocation”, while the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications warned that Russia could use these videos to convince Ukrainian soldiers to surrender.
Ukraine 24 news agency also reported on its Facebook page that its TV channel and website had been hacked to broadcast Zelensky's “message”.
According to a Reuters fact check, the second fake video shows Putin saying that Russia had “managed to reach peace with Ukraine” and further announcing the restoration of the independence of Crimea as a republic inside Ukraine.
Президент РФ обьявил о капитуляции россии. Русский солдат, бросай оружие и иди домой, пока жив! pic.twitter.com/5wWC3UlpYr
— Serhii Sternenko (@sternenko) March 16, 2022
Head of security policy at Meta, Nathaniel Gleicher, confirmed the deepfake videos and said his team had identified and removed them.
"We've quickly reviewed and removed this video for violating our policy against misleading, manipulated media, and notified our peers at other platforms," tweeted Gleicher.
1/ Earlier today, our teams identified and removed a deepfake video claiming to show President Zelensky issuing a statement he never did. It appeared on a reportedly compromised website and then started showing across the internet.
— Nathaniel Gleicher (@ngleicher) March 16, 2022
He also attached a detailed document of Meta's policy against manipulated media, which states that media can be edited for artistic reasons; however, in cases where the "manipulation is not apparent and could mislead… We remove this content because it can go viral quickly".
IOL