One signal

Full Fact says a viral video supposedly showing people collecting iPhone boxes in the Strait of Hormuz was made with AI. Its fact-check points to a SynthID watermark and visual glitches, including boxes changing in a man’s hands and his shoes appearing and disappearing.

The video’s setting is tied to real events: ships were struck in the Strait and one sank. But Full Fact says it could not verify that the ship was carrying iPhones. When fabricated footage borrows the setting of a real crisis, the believable backdrop does some of the misinformation’s work for it.

Discuss: Would platforms do more good by labelling synthetic crisis footage, or by focusing on the people sharing it?

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