The case of the murder of Liridona Ademaj Murseli, during the evening of November 29 in Pristina, has been followed by successive reports from the country's media. (see here, here, here and here)
The case caused a stir due to the sensitivity and circumstances of the event. This led to great empathy from the audience, which also converted into interest in reading and watching information about this event.
Among the media reports that met basic standards of journalistic practice, there were also many social media publications that had partially accurate content, but there were also those that were completely inaccurate or fabricated.
Hibrid.info, during this period, has monitored some of these publishers/pages on Facebook that have used the deepfake technique to generate completely fabricated content of the victim Liridona Ademaj Murseli.
As a recent example, there is a video published on social media Facebook by pages named “Rozaria” and “Realiteti”. The video features an image of the victim to which an audio recording has been added, claiming that she is talking about her murder. (see here and here)
Although this video may be understood by the audience as not real, it still arouses reactions and interactivity on Facebook pages, as evidenced by the number of interactivity achieved in the post, where currently one post has reached over 1 million clicks, over 40.000 likes, 6000 comments and around 5000 shares, while the other post has 42.000 views, over 500 likes, 70 comments and over 170 shares. So, this video, where the voice of the victim is integrated into the image, is considered a 'DeepFake'.
'Deepfake', in the definition given to the term by the Cambridge dictionary, is understood as "a video or audio recording that replaces someone's face or voice with that of someone else, in a way that appears realistic". (see here)
This fabrication method is mainly used with sensational or political figures that arouse interest in viewing in the audience. Hibrid.info has covered articles with examples such as: the video of former US President Barack Obama (see here), video of Prime Minister Albin Kurti speaking Arabic (see here) etc.
The way of reporting on events that touch human emotions and cause reactions in the public is complicated and delicate. This is also addressed in an article by the blog “Historiesofemotion.com” adding that “news reports should avoid ‘sensationalistic and short-term media coverage that tires the audience in its relentless and endless parade of death and horror’”. (read here)
The video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which circulated online at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, is a typical example of deepfake content, which shows that the goal of this content is to generate as large an audience as possible on the Internet. (see here) The video in which Zelensky is seen wearing a green shirt and calling on Ukrainians to lay down their arms in the war against Russia was also covered by hibrid.info. (see here)
