Franziska Giffey and Michael Ludwig fall for the fake Klitschko. The German SPD politician Franziska Giffey and Vienna's SPÖ mayor Michael Ludwig supposedly spoke to their Kiev counterpart Vitali Klitschko in a video call. But the real Klitschko doesn't know anything about it.

After a fake phone call between an alleged Vitali Klitschko and Berlin's mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD), two other town halls reported similar incidents.

The mirror writes:

During a video connection on Friday, Giffey had doubts as to whether she was actually connected to Kiev's mayor as planned. The conversation then ended prematurely. The Senate Chancellery assumes digital manipulation: "Apparently it was a deepfake"

Several European mayors are currently reporting fake calls from an alleged Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kiev. The German SPD politician Franziska Giffey and Vienna's SPÖ mayor Michael Ludwig also received such a call - but didn't notice it at first.

Vitaliy Klitschko speaks out himself

T3n writes:

Mr. Klitschko asked how we are doing with the many Ukrainian refugees, how we are dealing with them, what the numbers are, a completely normal conversation, as we expected.” The video conference on cooperation between the two cities had been arranged long beforehand .

Klitschko deep fake: conference is drifting

But then the conversation drifted into bizarre directions: “It was once about the fact that he referred to an alleged conversation with Ambassador Andrij Melnyk and asked how we see that so many Ukrainians wanted to sneak into social benefits in Berlin.” said Frerichs. There was also a request to expel men who had fled back to Ukraine to fight. However, the last topic was very noticeable: “He asked whether we could provide Kiev with advisory support in organizing a kind of CSD (Christopher Street Day). That was more than strange considering the war.”

The conversation between Giffey and the fake Klitschko was then broken off. “The course of the conversation and the topic setting have caused mistrust in Berlin,” tweeted the Senate Chancellery. Inquiries to the Ukrainian ambassador in Germany then made it clear that the person could not be Vitali Klitschko. “Apparently we are dealing with a deep fake,” said Frerichs. There was also a similar incident in Madrid recently. Mayor José Luis Martinez-Almeida also became suspicious during a video conference with the alleged Klitschko.

What are deepfakes? Deepfakes are photos, videos or audio files that are intentionally altered using artificial intelligence . The term is a combination of “deep learning” (a method through which an artificial intelligence learns) and “fake”. In these videos, images or voice files, you see or hear people doing or saying things that they have never actually done or said.

The manipulation of media content is not a new phenomenon and was used very early on, primarily in connection with political propaganda. In contrast to the past, however, today we rely on artificial intelligence and the computing power of computers.

One of the first videos to get a lot of attention was a deepfake of former US President Barack Obama . In this video, the online medium BuzzFeed shows how deepfakes work and why they can be dangerous > Read more

How do you recognize deepfakes?

Currently, many deepfake videos can still be seen with the naked eye. There are typical characteristics by which you can recognize deepfakes:

  • Unnatural face: An unnatural facial expression or a blank look can be an indication that it is a fake. Illogical shadows on the face or strange-looking hair can also be revealing.
  • Blurred transitions: Pay attention to transitions like the one between face and hair or face and neck. These transitions are often blurred in deepfakes.
  • Lack of blinking: People blink automatically, without being aware of it, every few seconds. If people in a video don't blink, that's a red flag!
  • Different quality: If the face has a different quality than the rest of the video or image, it is probably a deepfake.
  • Illogical background: Look at the background and the transition from face to background; errors often only become apparent when you look more closely!
  • Use tools: Various companies and universities are already working on tools to detect deepfakes. For example, there is the Deepware Scanner , the DeepFake-o-meter or the Deepfake Detection from DuckDuckGoose .

Source:

ORF
MIRROR
T3N

In line with this topic:

Deepfake: Zelensky's fake call for surrender
Putin admits to being a terrorist in a deepfake video


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