Facebook says it took down deepfake video of Zelensky making a speech

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, says its security teams identified and took down a deepfake video showing Ukrainian President Zelensky delivering a statement that he did not actually deliver.

Deepfake videos use technology to manipulate or generate fake media, for example, by using machine learning to put someone’s face on another person’s body in a video. Some technology can reproduce speech using existing samples of a person’s voice.

Meta’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, says the fake video of Zelensky appeared on a “reportedly compromised website and then started showing across the internet.”

Meta reviewed and removed the video for violating its policy against misleading manipulated media, and notified other platforms, Gleicher says.

The announcement does not say what the fake Zelensky said in the video.

Meta also owns Instagram and WhatsApp.

Zelensky released a video online later dismissing the fake clip.

2/ We've quickly reviewed and removed this video for violating our policy against misleading manipulated media, and notified our peers at other platforms.

— Nathaniel Gleicher (@ngleicher) March 16, 2022

Sky News reported that in the fake video, Zelensky told people to surrender to Russia, and said he was giving Russia the Donbas region of Ukraine.

Examples said to be from the fake video that are still circulating online do not appear convincing.

As a matter of principle, I never post or link to fake or false content. But @MikaelThalen has helpfully whacked a label on this Zelensky one, so here goes.

I've seen some well-made deepfakes. This, however, has to rank among the worst of all time.pic.twitter.com/6OTjGxT28a

— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) March 16, 2022