Facebook has refused to take down a viral video of Nancy Pelosi that was doctored to make her appear drunk.
A video of Pelosi’s speech at a Center for American Progress event was subtly edited to make her voice sound garbled and slowed down, as if she was under the influence of alcohol.
She was speaking at the time about Donald Trump’s refusal to cooperate with congressional investigations, which she said was tantamount to a ‘cover-up.’
One version of the video posted on the conservative Facebook page Politics WatchDog, was viewed more than 2 million times and has been shared almost 50,000 times.
Facebook has refused to take down a video of Nancy Pelosi, (pictured), which was doctored to make her appear drunk and has been widely shared on social media
On Friday, Pelosi’s daughter hit out at Republicans and their supporters for sharing the doctored video of her mother, claiming that she doesn’t even drink.
Christine Pelosi tweeted: ‘Republicans and their conservative allies have been pumping this despicable fake meme for years! Now they are caught. #Factcheck. Madam Speaker doesn’t even drink alcohol!.’
She tweeted a link to the original article where the issue was raised in The Washington Post on Friday.
She continued her criticism in a follow-up tweet, calling on Facebook to suspend the account of a user who sent her a message describing Pelosi as an alcoholic in need of an intervention.
‘This is the c**p I’m talking about,’ Christine wrote and claimed she had reported the account.
‘Obviously this doesn’t stop ME but others are affected by the ‘voter depression’ strategy that Trump allies are perpetuating.’
The footage received 23,000 comments and social media users questioned whether she was ‘drunk’ and called her ‘a babbling mess.’
version of the video posted by the conservative Facebook page Politics WatchDog, was viewed more than 2 million times and has been shared almost 50,000 times
Analyses of the distorted Center for American Progress video by researchers indicate that the video has been slowed to about 75 percent of its original speed
The video has appeared in the comments sections of message boards and regional news outlets, as well as YouTube and Twitter accounts.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, tweeted a link to the altered video Thursday night with the comment: ‘What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi? Her speech pattern is bizarre.’ The tweet has since been deleted.
Giuliani stoked concerns about his own well-being on Friday morning with a tweet containing a backhanded apology to Pelosi for circulating a fake video of her appearing incoherent during public events.
‘ivesssapology for a video which is allegedly is a caricature of an otherwise halting speech pattern,’ tweeted Giuliani.
Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine has also hit out at Republicans and their supporters for sharing the doctored video of her mother, claiming that she doesn’t even drink. They are pictured here together at an event in Philadelphia’s Central Library in 2008
Christine Pelosi tweeted: ‘Republicans and their conservative allies have been pumping this despicable fake meme for years!’
‘[S]he should first stop, and apologize for, saying the President needs an “intervention.” Are’
The tweet ended there, leading some on Twitter to speculate that Giuliani was drunk at 9.00 am.
On Thursday night, Trump tweeted a different video of Pelosi – an edited montage taken from Fox News – that focused on moments where she briefly paused or stumbled, that the president claimed showed her stammering through a news conference.
The clip included roughly 30 seconds of Pelosi’s speech on Thursday, in which she took questions from reporters and discussed what she called Trump’s ‘temper tantrum.’
Facebook has admitted its own failures to combat fake news in the lead-up to the 2016 election, and had introduced a system that was intended to stop the flow of misleading and false material.
Rudolph Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, tweeted a link to the altered video Thursday night with the comment: ‘What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi?’
He stoked concerns about his own well-being on Friday morning with a tweet containing a backhanded apology to Pelosi for circulating a fake video of her appearing incoherent
On Friday, a company spokesperson told the Huffington Post that content like the Pelosi video, does not technically break any rules because there’s no policy against posting fake content on the platform.
As a result Facebook is allowing the video to remain.
However, the social media giant did ‘enqueue’ the video for review by a third-party fact-checking company, which apparently deemed it misleading.
Instead of being deleted outright, the fake version of Pelosi’s speech will be made harder to find on the platform, the spokesperson added.
Trump tweeted a video of Pelosi, an edited montage taken from Fox News, which focused on moments where she briefly paused or stumbled, that he claimed showed her stammering
The footage received plenty of reaction on Facebook with users asking if she was drunk
The spokesman said: ‘There’s a tension here: we work hard to find the right balance between encouraging free expression and promoting a safe and authentic community, and we believe that reducing the distribution of inauthentic content strikes that balance.
‘But just because something is allowed to be on Facebook doesn’t mean it should get distribution. In other words, we allow people to post it as a form of expression, but we’re not going to show it at the top of News Feed.’
Analyses of the distorted Center for American Progress video by the Washington Post and outside researchers indicate that the video has been slowed to about 75 percent of its original speed.
The video also appears to have been altered to modify her pitch, to more closely resemble the sound of her natural speech, even though the speech change would have deepened the sound of her voice.
‘There is no question that the video has been slowed to alter Pelosi’s voice,’ Hany Farid, a computer-science professor and digital-forensics expert at University of California, Berkeley, told the Washington Post.
‘It is striking that such a simple manipulation can be so effective and believable to some.
‘While I think that deep-fake technology poses a real threat, this type of low-tech fake shows that there is a larger threat of misinformation campaigns — too many of us are willing to believe the worst in people that we disagree with.’