In the Brazilian election campaign, which was officially launched this week, there may have already been a first case of manipulated information through the montage of images with sound.
This is a form of fake news known as Deep Fake, in which the data of a poll and the voice of a renowned journalist announcing it has been altered.
The montage shows anchor Renata Vasconcellos of the news program Jornal Nacional reporting that President Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, right) is the favorite with 44% against 32% for opposition candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Worker’s Party, left).
It is reported that in the Deep Fake, the voice of the journalist Vasconcellos was almost perfectly reproduced.
The real information is that the IPEC poll presented on Monday, with a view to the October 2 elections, showed 44% of voting intentions for Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party and 32% for Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party.
The false version by Jornal Nacional, Brazil’s most-watched news program, began circulating on YouTube, WhatsApp, and Twitter on Wednesday, a day after the inauguration of the new president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes.
Fingers in Brazil were immediately pointed at President Bolsonaro, who is more or openly accused of being responsible for the manipulation.
But opposing voices say that this Deep Fake is a false flag operation created by Lula da Silva and his supporters to [falsely] accuse and discredit Bolsonaro.