Viral TikTok account impersonates France 24, spreads fake news • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] Hi Charlotte. Well, tonight you’re focusing on a Tik Tok account that has attempted to impersonate us here at France 24 and spread fake news. Tell us more. That’s right, Sharon. So, here I have a few examples of the fake news stories posted by this Tik Tok account. They’re in French, so I will translate for our non-French speakers. First, we have this video which um shows Paul Pakar, who is a presenter on the French channel here at France 24, and she appears to announce that fisherman in Britany caught a mermaid. This clip uh racked up more than 4 million views. In another clip posted by the same account, uh Mariam Pzade appears to state that Priit Mun, who has beenounded um by rumors that she is secretly transgender, is going to provide evidence that she is a woman. Now, these clips are of course false and were generated with artificial intelligence. That includes the fake voices of the presenters. Uh, and if we take a look back at that first clip, you’ll see a logo coming up um, which is the logo of Sora, which is just here. And that is the um, artificial intelligence software that was used to generate that clip that you’re seeing. Now, in terms of the other fake news being spread by this Tik Tok account in question, if we take a look here, there is quite a range of content. We’ve got one video here which uh claims that the Eiffel Tower was struck by a Russian missile. Of course, false. Uh there are other stories that are perhaps less obviously fake news uh such as this story here, which alleges that uh there is a volcano in Reinong which is going to erupt within the coming days. But all of the videos you can see here on this account are false and the user has used very clickbaity uh titles. I would say in a bid to draw people in and spread that fake news. I’d like to also point out that it’s not only France 24 that has been imitated on this account. The French media outlets Kini and Tfan were also impersonated. However, the vast majority of the clips on this account uh do involve France 24. Uh there are around 70 videos involving France 24 presenters on here that in total racked up some 200 million views and that’s not counting the views on um Instagram and Facebook where these videos were also circulated. Sharon, it’s a staggering number of views. Charlotte, do we know exactly who was behind all of this? Well, it’s difficult um to pin down who exactly is behind all of this. Uh although what we do know is that the videos originate from this Tik Tok account called Omar TV249. Uh there’s no bio. Um all we have is a link to a page. Um it’s a Seneagalles platform and uh this person is trying to raise funds. Although we can see they didn’t manage to raise anything. Again, the description here is in French and it’s a very vague description. It simply says the objective of this fund raising page is to raise money for people who I quote are going through a tough time. Uh the account has since been deleted. It seems that the same user then turned to a different Tik Tok account with a similar name. We’ve got Omar DTV and we have the same logo here as that initial account. Um and they posted similar false news stories. Um and in terms of that, this account has also um since been deleted. Um, in terms of other information we have about the initial account, if we use the tool comment picker, it does give us a bit more of an insight uh into the account’s history, it was previously called A4 Dond 93. That translates as World News 93. But unfortunately, beyond that, we don’t really have much more information. I would like to point out though that this is not the first time that France 24 has been impersonated uh by social media um platforms. A series of French newsroom include newsrooms including France 24 have previously been targeted uh and impersonated by a Russian disinformation campaign dubbed operation matrioska. Uh and a couple of weeks ago the operation capitalized on the 2015 um the 10th anniversary of the 2015 Paris attacks in a bid to sew disinformation and to discredit President Emanuel Makon. Now, at this stage, we don’t have enough um information or evidence to suggest that Operation Mat Matrioska is behind the videos that we just looked at. Uh but in any case, Sharon, the best way to protect yourself uh from this disinformation is to always check the official websites and social media accounts of the media outlets in question. And by tuning in to France 24, uh our viewers already doing a great job, I would say. Very good advice, Charlotte. Charlotte there with tonight’s truth or fake. Thanks so much. We’ll be right back after this short break.

In recent weeks, a viral account on Tiktok has impersonated France 24 in a bid to spread fake news. Charlotte Hughes takes a closer look at the false content in question, and what more we know about its origins.
#fakenews #ai #sora

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5 comments

  2. wow yall spotted the sora watermark on the mermaid video? see, this is why we need hard hitting journalists like you.
    real eagle eyes you are xD

    the most astonishing thing about this is how well ai can copy media lying to the people 😀
    but the ai needs to figure out that you dont actually invent new things, you just say the thing you want amplified and stay silent on the things you want people to forget about. thats how you lie like a real flesh and blood journalist 😀

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