Fact Check: Emir of Qatar calls Donald Trump a robber? No, videos are AI-manipulated
Videos of the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, have gone viral, claiming that the Emir has criticised Trump after the US president’s recent visit to the Middle East.
By Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The videos show the Emir of Qatar calling US president Donald Trump a robber, and his visit to the Middle East a ‘colossal mistake’.
Fact:The claim is false. The videos are AI-manipulated.
Hyderabad: US President Donald Trump was recently on a four-day tour of the Middle East, focused on forging substantial economic and diplomatic ties with the Gulf nations.
In this backdrop, videos of the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, have been circulating on social media in which he can be heard allegedly calling Donald Trump a robber and saying that inviting him was a colossal mistake.
Video 1
An Instagram user shared the video with the caption, “REGRET OF THE #Trump INVITATION to #saudi #qatar.” (Archive)
In the video, Emir purportedly says, “I truly regret inviting Trump, the robber of the Middle East. He did not come to discuss cooperation. He came to collect tributes, fountains, palaces, golden welcome ceremonies, light shows, and private flights in his eyes. These grand gestures are not courtesies but spoils of war. I originally thought he was here to negotiate partnerships, but it turned out to be nothing but his personal showcase tour. What he needs is not allies but admirers. Those luxury cars, honour guards, and palace banquets, all meant to please him. As long as he feels like a king, he will almost agree to any deal. He revels in luxury and craves media attention. He does not understand real diplomacy…”
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video has been manipulated using AI.
A reverse image search of the keyframes led us to the original video published by Al Jazeera English on October 30, 2017. In the video, Al Thani discusses Qatar’s diplomatic crisis with other Gulf countries, including the blockade and attempts to change the regime.
This raised the possibility that the video may have been AI-manipulated. We analysed the audio using the tool Deepfake-0-Meter. One detector found the audio to be 100 per cent likely AI-generated, two others assessed it as over 90 per cent likely, and one indicated a probability of over 50 per cent.
Video 2
An Instagram user shared another video with the caption, “We thought he’d come to negotiate cooperation, but all he wanted was to make deals without putting up a single cent of capital. And to think I gifted him a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jet!”
In this video, we also found Emir purportedly stating that inviting Trump was a colossal mistake, saying ‘camels of the desert have more dignity than Trump’ and accusing him of making deals without any investment.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that this video is also AI-manipulated.
Although we could not trace the original version of the video, we found several inconsistencies, such as the audio not syncing with the speaker’s lip movements, which indicated that the audio may have been AI-generated.
Upon analysing the audio with Deepfake-o-Meter, one detector found it 100 per cent likely to be AI-generated, while another reported a 99.9 per cent likelihood. Two detectors indicated an AI-generation likelihood of over 80 per cent. Hive Moderation also flagged the video as containing AI-generated or deepfake content, assigning it an aggregate score of 99.8 per cent.
Also, we did not find any report of the Emir of Qatar criticising Trump after the latter's recent Middle East tour.
Therefore, the claim is false.
