Amid the wildfires in Los Angeles, a video purportedly showing American pop star Taylor Swift calling the disaster “divine retribution” for the US’s support of Israel’s actions in Gaza is doing the rounds on social media.
In the video, Taylor can be heard saying: “Burns Gaza for a year and a half with missiles funded by American taxpayers. Only for God’s punishment to strike the US in just two days. Gaza has endured relentless bombing by missiles financed through the taxes paid by American citizens. This brutal assault has caused immense suffering for Gaza residents and left its infrastructure in ruins. The world remained largely silent. However, in just two days divine retribution struck the United States as a natural disaster consumed an area larger than Gaza itself. This event raises profound questions about justice and the consequences of supporting oppression.”
The above post can be seen here (archive)
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the video, and found it to be a deepfake.
A close analysis of the video reveals noticeable lip-sync discrepancies, with the audio not aligning seamlessly with Taylor Swift’s facial movements, pointing to potential AI manipulation.
Running the viral video keyframes through Reverse Image Search, our team found the original clip uploaded on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’s official YouTube channel.
The video, dated November 12, 2021, features Taylor Swift discussing the re-release of her album RED (Taylor’s Version), her 10-minute version of All Too Well, and other exciting details.
A side-by-side comparison of the original video and the alleged clip confirms that the latter was digitally altered using Artificial Intelligence. While the visuals retain the original backdrop and setting, the facial movements and audio were clearly manipulated.
Using TrueMedia’s deepfake detection software, we identified significant AI-driven modifications to facial expressions and speech synchronisation [Detailed analysis can be seen here]. The AI-generated audio was further verified using Hiya’s voice detection tool, which confirmed the audio as 100% synthetically generated.
So in conclusion, we can say that the viral video claiming Taylor Swift described the Los Angeles wildfires as “divine retribution” is doctored.
