France: Michel Barnier targeted by a new deepfake

The video lasts precisely thirty-three seconds. We see Michel Barnier giving a speech behind a lectern, on which is written “ Meetings of the departments of France “. Several textual banners, commonly called synths, are affixed to these images. In particular, we find the logo of the French television channel BFM TV. On the sound side, we hear the Prime Minister announcing that from 2025, “ motorway speed will be limited to 90 km/h for thermal vehicles, in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve road safety. On the other hand, electric vehicles will retain the current limit of 130 km/h. This distinction aims to encourage the transition to cleaner technologies and support our commitment to ecology and innovation. We are counting on your understanding and support in this essential approach for the future. ».

Faced with this alleged declaration, Internet users are getting annoyed. One of them comments: “ They are crazy! They are paid to destroy France by pretending to fight a threat that does not exist. How long are you going to let them take everything away from you? They are your worst enemies “. In reality, Michel Barnier never said these words.

Hyperfaking generated by artificial intelligence

Verification completed, this video is a deepfake, a hyperfaking generated by artificial intelligence. In other words, the Prime Minister's voice and the movement of his lips were modified to make him say anything. If the lip synchronization is not perfect, Michel Barnier's voice is rather well reproduced.

The manipulation is really convincing, which explains why many Internet users fall for it.

Verification

To verify these images, we started by going back to the source. We therefore rewatched Michel Barnier's speech, broadcast on BFM TV on November 15. We find there, the same gestures, the same desk, but at no time does Michel Barnier talk about the speed limit on the highways.

From there, we know that there was manipulation. To find out what kind, we screened the video through several artificial intelligence detectors. The results are clear, it is a deepfake. Reverse image searches show that this deepfake was made by a parody account on TikTok.

A new deepfake

Among those who share this false information, we find conspiratorial accounts or others simply opposed to the government and President Emmanuel Macron. What is interesting is that some of them had already distributed another deepfake of Michel Barnier last September. Here too, the Prime Minister's voice had been manipulated to wrongly attribute to him shock measures, such as an increase in fuel or working hours. These infoxes are often accompanied by calls for mobilization.