Deepfake 'Chechnyan' soldier posts false Ukraine war stories
A Chinese man who masqueraded as a Chechnyan special forces soldier operating in Ukraine posted false stories about his exploits in the Russia-Ukraine war, in addition to selling vodka, honey and other products from his e-commerce store. Operating under the pseudonym 'Baoer Kechatie' , a Chinese individual used deepfake technology to alter his appearance and voice and to portray himself as a Chechnyan soldier on the front lines in Ukraine, claiming to have engaged in battles against US Marines and even boasting about seizing territory and weapons. Despite the fabricated nature of his persona, he managed to sell various products, including imported Russian goods like vodka and honey, through his online store. While a number of the deepfake videos were labeled as movie or drama plots, comments posted by users indicated he had successfully convinced many people, some of whom 'even cheered for his success', according to Sixth Tone. Doubts about the man's identity began to surface amongst his 400,000+ followers, particularly surrounding his Chinese accent. Users then discovered that the IP address of his Douyin (the original, Chinese version of TikTok) account showed he was in Henan, matching his accent. Douyin said it had indefinitely suspended the account for violating its terms. Deepfake Deepfakes (a portmanteau of ' deep learning ' and 'fake') are images, videos, or audio which are edited or generated using artificial intelligence tools, and which may depict real or non-existent people. They are a type of synthetic media. Source: Wikipedia 🔗 System 🤖 Unknown Documents 📃 https://v.douyin.com/UoygMHT/ https://v.douyin.com/UoCeUAt/ https//v.douyin.com/Uo498ba/ https://www.douyin.com/user/MS4wLjABAAAANDEWKpWPI1HZOYhDHzk-u-n4QapA7hhx4MMmLUBGa4EgmNJfRLo2XrGnIU54PfrB?modal_id=7245132559800159544 Operator: Developer: Country: China; Ukraine Sector: Politics; Govt - defence Purpose: Scare/confuse/destabilise Technology: Deepfake - audio, video; Machine learning Issue: Mis/disinformation; Transparency News and commentary 🗞️ https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1013141 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russian-soldier-in-ukraine-was-deep-fake-agitator-in-china-nl9rq820q https://uk.news.yahoo.com/tiktoker-told-400-000-fans-090225311.html https://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2023/06/20/6491618421efa051178b4586.html https://www.insider.com/tiktoker-400000-fans-pretends-russian-spec-ops-ukraine-douyin-china-2023-6 https://redian.news/wxnews/437682
- Date it happened
- 2023-06-01
This incident was imported from AIAAIC and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.
This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.