Netanyahu posts video to dispel rumors of his death after disinformation spread online
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video of himself getting coffee on Sunday in an apparent attempt to prove that online rumors of his death are greatly exaggerated.
The rumors stem from a video released by the Israeli government’s press office last Thursday, which some social media users say shows Netanyahu with six fingers on one hand – a sign of fake content – causing speculation about the prime minister’s life.
Another example of how disinformation in global politics can spread in this age of AI-generated images and videos.
In Sunday’s video, taken at a restaurant on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Netanyahu is seen getting coffee and talking to an aide.
After taking the coffee from the cashier, he holds up one hand at a time to show that they both have five fingers.
His assistant then asks him about the rumors that he was killed or injured. Netanyahu responds with a pun on the word “dead” – which is Hebrew slang that can be used to describe “crazy” about someone or something.
“I’m crazy about coffee. You know what? I’m crazy about my people,” Netanyahu told an aide.
CBC News has independently verified the location of the video from online photos of the cafe, and has confirmed it to be authentic.
Rumors spread in Iran
Netanyahu’s video last Thursday, when he addressed the Israeli public via video link, was his first press conference since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran.
After claims of his six-fingered hand began to circulate, speculation grew that the Israeli prime minister was dead or injured. These rumors were eventually spread by Iranian state media and circulated on the Internet in Iran.
Many media outlets watched the video of Netanyahu’s speech and found it to be true.
Newsweek reviewed clear images of the speech and found that it showed Netanyahu with five fingers on his left hand. Online fact checker The snow found users who might mistake the prominence of his hands — the bump on the bottom of a person’s pinky finger — for an extra digit.
Since the start of the US and Israeli invasion of Iran last month, AI-generated images and videos have surfaced online, often making it difficult to tell what’s real and what’s not.
In one example, a video purporting to show Iranian missiles hitting Tel Aviv has been viewed millions of times on X. Although the AI chatbot Grok told users that it was real, CBC’s fact-checking team found that it was actually a lie.
Can you say this video is fake? The AI chatbot Grok couldn’t. It has been viewed millions of times on platforms such as X and Instagram, allegedly showing Iranian missiles hitting Tel Aviv.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday accused Iran of using artificial intelligence as a “weapon to kill germs” to distort its success and support during the war, although he also accused the Western media – without evidence – of “close cooperation” with Iran to spread “false news” made with AI.
