Technology can make it look as if anyone has said or done anything. Is it the next wave of (mis)information warfare?
By Oscar Schwartz | The Guardian
n May, a video appeared on the internet of Donald Trump offering advice to the people of Belgium on the issue of climate change. “As you know, I had the balls to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement,” he said, looking directly into the camera, “and so should you.”
The video was created by a Belgian political party, Socialistische Partij Anders, or sp.a, and posted on sp.a’s Twitter and Facebook. It provoked hundreds of comments, many expressing outrage that the American president would dare weigh in on Belgium’s climate policy.
One woman wrote: “Humpy Trump needs to look at his own country with his deranged child killers who just end up with the heaviest weapons in schools.”
Another added: “Trump shouldn’t blow so high from the tower because the Americans are themselves as dumb.”
But this anger was misdirected. The speech, it was later revealed, was nothing more than a hi-tech forgery.
