Deepfake of Flávio Bolsonaro being used to spread a fake petition to free Jair Bolsonaro

A video which shows Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) allegedly signing a petition to free his father, Jair Bolsonaro (PL), was generated by AI. The content, which circulated on TikTok, manipulated the image and statement of presidential hopeful to spread misinformation and generate engagement on a fake profile. “Click the button below my photo to cast your vote”, says the image of the senator. This is clearly a synthetic video due to the plastic and robotic sound of the senator’s voice. The post was flagged as AI-generated by the social media platform itself.

What’s more, there never was an official petition organized by Jair Bolsonaro’s defense team. The arrest of the former president has been used by many artificially generated publications to perpetrate scams and generate engagement on social media. Some of these include deepfakes of Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro which were used to spread a false fundraising campaign, as identified by this observatory and debunked by fact-checking agencies.