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| - Fact Check: Americans are NOT being conscripted for Ukraine war, deepfake Biden video goes viral
A post being widely shared on social media alleges that US President Joe Biden announced a national draft for the Ukraine war.
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India Today Fact Check
The alleged statement by Biden is from an AI-generated deepfake. No draft has been announced in the US.
The United States has so far provided nearly $32 billion in weapons to Ukraine to defend itself against the Russian invasion which has killed thousands and displaced millions. Washington is also expected to announce an additional $400 million military aid package for Kyiv. But is the US now going to escalate things further by actively entering the war? At least that’s what many seem to believe President Joe Biden has said.
A post that’s being widely shared on social media alleges that Biden announced a national draft for the Ukraine war.
The post was a screenshot of a tweet containing the text, ”BREAKING: Biden calls for a national draft. Men and women are to be selected to fight in Ukraine.”
It further quoted Biden saying, "The recommended way forward will be to invoke the Selective Service Act, as is my authority as president." The post also contained a photo of Biden making an address.
India Today, in its investigation, found that Biden had not called for a national draft. The alleged statement by Biden is from an AI-generated “deepfake” video.
AFWA Probe
In the US, military conscription, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the federal government in six conflicts. On January 27, 1973, then-Defense Secretary Melvin Laird announced the end of the military draft, after 25 uninterrupted years of conscription, saying that the Armed Forces “henceforth will depend exclusively on volunteer soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.” Since then, it has not been employed again.
But did Biden announce a new draft?
We couldn’t find any credible media reports about Biden calling for a national draft. Had he made a similar statement, media organisations across the world would have reported it.
We then searched for the text written in the viral screenshot and found the same tweeted by an account called “ThePatriotOasis”. The tweet contained a video of Biden where he could be heard speaking about invoking the Selective Service Act. One of the frames in this video matched the photo in the viral screenshot. This made it clear that the viral screenshot was likely of this tweet.
In the video, Biden said, “The illegal Russian offensive has been swift, callous and brutal. It's barbaric. Putin's illegal occupation of Kyiv and the impending Chinese blockade of Taiwan has created a two-front national security crisis that requires more troops than the volunteer military can supply. I have received guidance from General Milly, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, that the recommended way forward will be to invoke the Selective Service Act, as is my authority as president.”
He further said, “The first to be called in a sequence determined by national lottery will be men and women whose twentieth birthday falls during the calendar year 2023. Remember, you are not sending your sons and daughters to war, you're sending them to freedom. God bless our troops and god bless Ukraine.”
But here’s the kicker. Soon after Biden’s speech, a man appears on the screen and clarifies that this was an AI-generated video. He said, "That was an AI...I don't want to say recreation, but maybe a pre-creation of President Biden, designed and scripted by our producers here for the show of what could happen if President Biden were to declare and activate the Selective Service Act, begin drafting 20-year-olds here in the United States.”
Who made the deepfake?
ThePatriotOasis appeared to have taken the video from The Post Millennial, a far-right Canadian online news magazine. Sharing the same video on February 27, 2023, the official Twitter account of The Post Millennial wrote that it was an AI-generated video. The tweet said, “AI imagines what would happen if Biden declares and activates the Selective Service Act and begins drafting 20 years old to war”.
The man in the video who said it was created using AI was Jack Posobiec, a far-right political activist in the US. The video was from a show he hosts for Turning Point USA, a conservative American nonprofit. He also tweeted the video on February 27.
We were also able to find the original video that was altered to create the deepfake. Using reverse search, we found the original on the YouTube channel of the White House, shared on December 8, 2021. There, the US president was speaking about the Build Back Better Act.
Thus, it’s clear that no draft has been announced in the US and that the post making the rounds shows an AI-generated deepfake of Biden.
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You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
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