A Belgian political party has created a fake video of a Donald Trump speech in which the U.S. president apparently calls on the country to follow Americas lead and exit the Paris climate agreement.
In the video, which uses so-called “deep fake” technology to make it appear that Trump is giving a fictional address, the president says: “As you know I had the balls to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. And so should you.”
“Because what you guys are doing right now in Belgium is actually worse. You agreed, but you are not taking any measures. Only blablabla. Bingbangboom,” the speech continues.
Toward the end of the video, Trump says, “We all know climate change is fake, just like this video,” but that phrase was not translated in the Dutch subtitles.
The Flemish Socialist Party sp.a., which posted the video on Sunday, said it wants to “start a public debate” to “draw attention to the necessity to act on climate change.” The video, at its end, calls on signing a petition that urges investing in renewable energies, electronic cars and public transport. The petition also calls on closing the Doel nuclear plant in Flanders.
“This is the first time we use this deep fake technology for a video campaign,” spokesperson Sarah Vandecruys told POLITICO. “We have commissioned a professional studio to create this video, and we have checked with them that this is legally sound.”
Some commenters on the partys Facebook page had apparently not realized the video was a fake, but Vandecruys stressed that the video was not intended to dupe supporters.
“It is clear from the lip movements that this is not a genuine speech by Trump, and we also state this at the end of the video,” she said.
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