This short video has been made by Dr Dren Gërguri, a lecturer at the Department of Journalism, University of Prishtina, Kosovo; a journalist, trainer, blogger, political affairs and countering disinformation expert.

It's an example of a "cheapfake", or the new, dangerous form of "Fake News 2.0".

So, what are "cheapfakes" and what makes them so harmful?

Cheapfakes are a form of manipulation performed on a piece of video, audio, or photography. This form of manipulation can be achieved by using some basic computer software, which enables interference in video, audio, or photos, as shown in the instructional video.

So, for example, an easy way to produce basic ‘cheapfakes’ containing false claims is by editing a video, and by, e.g., meddling in the statements of a politician or some public figure, by changing their order, to convey a completely different message to the public, such as in the video presented in this blog post.

From this video you can learn how a cheapfake can be made in just a few minutes:

00:00 –00:23 Introduction and context of the video

00:23–1:01:00 Miroslav Lajčák’s manipulated interview

1:01:00 –1:41:00 How this cheapfake was made.

Don’t miss other videos like this one - subscribe to our Hive Mind Community YT channel today and watch an expert panel discussion on "Cheapfakes in the CEE" by Dr Dren Gërguri, Dr Ciprian Cucu, Katarzyna Sadło and Diana Filimon:

And if you want to read more on "Cheapfakes" and how, by simply manipulating pictures, they have become an intentional propaganda tool, check out another blog post by Dr Dren Gërguri: "Cheapfake as a dangerous propaganda tool: the case of a refugee from Kosovo": https://bit.ly/cheapfakespropagandatool