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The far right is spreading a fake AI-generated video falsely claiming that Tim Walz molested a gay student

The far right is spreading a fake AI-generated video falsely claiming that Tim Walz molested a gay student

The fake Matthew Metro from the AI ​​video

The fake Matthew Metro from the AI ​​video

In a viral post on The move is part of a broader phenomenon of the right using AI-generated videos to advance their political agenda.

“Breaking: Tim Walz’s former student, Matthew Metro, drops a shocking allegation – he claims Walz sexually assaulted him in 1997, when Walz was his teacher at Mankato West High School. Metro was a senior at the time. If this is true, this is a political earthquake,” the user said.

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However, users quickly added community notes to the post – which is now the case removed from X – to explain that the video is an AI fabrication. Deepfake detection websites immediately reported this video, and users immediately pointed out that the video features unnatural facial movements, a robotic voice, and contains several errors in basic facts, such as the years Metro attended school.

“The video is a deepfake. If it is not immediately clear to most people that it is a deepfake, we will soon be in serious trouble,” said BBC disinformation journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh.

“The speech pattern strongly suggests that this is an AI-generated request. For example, listen to him say “sexual assault” three times in the first 30 seconds. Every time it is said with the exact same pitch, tone and inflection…”

“The facial movements are glitchy – there are erratic muscle movements, droopy eyes, erratic eyebrow movements, and even the disappearance and reappearance of a tooth throughout the video,” said one user linked under the community notes.

Additionally, Metro’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he attended Mankato West High School between 1993 and 1996, not 1997 as claimed in the video. There are also photos of him on his Facebook profile, which appear to be a completely different person than the man in the video.

A Washington Post The investigation was able to contact Metro and question him about the deepfake. He said, ‘It’s obviously not me: the teeth are different, the hair is different, the eyes are different, the nose is different.’ I don’t know where they got that from.’

Metro, an out gay man, stressed that the incidents discussed in the fake video — such as Walz groping and kissing him at school — never happened.

He said that the video stated that he was in the closet during high school and that his parents divorced, both of which are false – he was in high school and his parents are still married today.

“I was completely out in high school,” he said.

He described his anger at being misrepresented in the video, especially given that his name and identity will forever be associated with the video online. “It is an invasion of my privacy and private life,” he said.

This is just the latest in a series of false and fraudulent sexual assault allegations surrounding Walz, as numerous reports have spread other claims that are not backed up by evidence. Several other mainstream conservative commentators have insisted that Walz is gay, and he has been attacked by conservatives for his support of a gay-straight alliance at Minnesota high schools in the 1990s and his support of trans youth as governor.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, AI deepfakes are becoming increasingly common, particularly in the digital political space. They point out that it is becoming increasingly important for the public to become aware of these growing threats and for more education to be spread about how best to detect deepfakes. This is particularly necessary during elections.

According to a 2019 study, “Deepfakes pose a major threat to society, the political system and companies because they put pressure on journalists who have difficulty filtering real from fake news, national security by spreading propaganda “It threatens interference in elections and undermines citizens’ trust in information from authorities and raises cybersecurity issues for people and organizations.”

The author of this study also emphasizes the need to bring anti-deepfake technology and regulation to the forefront. There are increasing calls for the federal government to regulate the growing technology surrounding artificial intelligence, in part because it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify what is legitimate. Education and training to detect deepfakes are highlighted as extremely necessary.

LGBTQ Nation reached out to Metro, but he did not respond prior to publication of this article.

The Harris-Walz campaign declined to comment, saying it does not comment on misinformation.

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