(AFP) – Left-leaning social media users have amplified an AI-generated audio clip purporting to show President Donald Trump screaming at US officials to block the release of documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, researchers said Friday. In recent weeks, renewed public furor over the so-called Epstein files has consumed US politics, spurring a showdown between lawmakers and Trump, a former friend of the late convicted sex offender.
“Not releasing the Epstein files,” a Trump-like synthetic voice said in a widely circulated clip that social media posts falsely claimed showed the president berating his cabinet. “If I go down, I will bring all of you down with me.” The clip was amplified by posts on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, many of which garnered millions of views and thousands of comments. Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said the audio was “an AI-generated fake.”
The clip — apparently first posted by a liberal TikTok user — came from a video showing signs it was generated with Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video model, NewsGuard said. The clip was then shared in multiple other videos that lacked Sora’s watermarks, thereby “obscuring its AI origins,” the watchdog said.
Liberal social media users have also wrongly quoted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as saying that recently released Epstein emails do not refer to the president. “It is not President Trump who is in the Epstein emails. It is another person with the same name,” read a post on X that credited the remark to Leavitt and amassed more than four million views. The false claim also gained traction on Instagram.
Responding on one such post on X insisting that Leavitt had made the remark, a White House account on the platform said: “No … she didn’t. You are a weapons grade moron.” The left-wing warping of reality underscores how disinformation is peddled across both sides of the political aisle in a hyperpolarized country. The falsehoods stir information chaos on increasingly unmoderated social media sites that has made it harder for ordinary users to decipher fact from fiction.
Trump has insisted he has “nothing to do” with his one-time close friend Epstein. The Republican president signed into law on Wednesday a bill requiring his administration to release government documents on Epstein. Trump had for months resisted the release of the files but stunned Washington this week after reversing course and ensuring that the legislation sailed through Congress.
Insiders warn that even with the president’s signature, his administration could lean on redactions, procedural delays, or lingering federal investigations to keep explosive details out of the public eye. Epstein, a wealthy financier, moved in elite circles for years, cultivating close ties with business tycoons, politicians, academics, and celebrities to whom he was accused of trafficking girls and young women for sex. Epstein’s 2019 arrest over a trafficking charge fueled a storm of outrage and pressure for a full accounting of his network and finances.
burs-ac/sla – Anuj CHOPRA
© 2024 AFP
