Deepfake video of Mark Rutte goes viral

Sometimes I can be a bit naive and I fall for everything, so it's a good thing I knew in advance that this video wasn't real. Because seriously: this is hardly distinguishable from the real deal, right? I have seen deepfake videos on TikTok before, and it really baffles me how people manage to do this. In a second, people change from Zac Efron to Leo DiCaprio to Shakira, Beyoncé, and thus Mark Rutte. I find it bizarre that this is possible with current technology.

It seems lifelike, this speech of his. And very refreshing: it’s not about corona for once. Even more refreshing, I think, is that it’s about a topic he should have spoken about a long time ago. Fortunately, this is also reflected in the many reactions, where you often see that ‘this is the speech that needs to happen’.

It is about climate change, of which we hear very little from the real Rutte. And yet it is an increasingly growing problem that is not being addressed much from the Netherlands: by 2150, the sea level will have risen by five meters.

Honestly: I would rather see this speech than the whole corona press conference next week. It can't be otherwise than that this video has also reached Rutte, right? And for those who didn't realize it was a deepfake and thus a fake video, they probably thought that Rutte was really being straightforward and addressing a good topic. Shall we just let them stay in that illusion?