Russian state TV deepfake blames Ukraine for Crocus City Hall attack

A Russian TV station broadcast a fake synthetic video of Ukrainian officials, including top security advisor Oleksiy Danilov, admitting to orchestrating the Crocus City Hall terror attack in Moscow. Gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall, a popular concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, killing over 100 people and injuring many more. The deadly attack, which came shortly after the re-election of Vladimir Putin as Russian president , had reputedly been flagged by US intelligence to Russian authorities. ISIS Khorasan officially claimed responsibility for the attack ; the deepfake appeared part of a larger effort to defect blame on Ukraine, with which Russia is at war. Putin later appeared to accuse Ukraine of orchestrating the attack in a TV statement. The video falsely quoted Danilov as saying that Ukraine was behind the attack. A ccording to BBC Verify reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh , the video mashed together AI-generated audio from recent interviews with two Ukrainian officials, including Danilov. 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 Operator: NTV Developer: Country: Russia, Ukraine Sector: Govt - defence; Politics Purpose: Defect blame Technology: Deepfake - vide o , audio; Mach ine learning Issue: Ethics/values; Mis/disinfo rmation; Transparency

Date it happened

2024-03-01

Organisation involved

NTV

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.