On June 10, 2024, an X user shared a 19-second clip purportedly showing U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – also known as AOC – saying the word "ceasefire" literally means someone "sees a fire" of any size, big or small.
Sitting in her kitchen addressing the camera, the Democrat was seemingly heard saying: "Ceasefire means that somebody sees a fire. It could be any kind of fire. It could be a big fire or a small fire, a bonfire or even a candle flame. It just matters that somebody sees a fire. That's why we call it a ceasefire."
The X user's caption read: "Just when you think you've seen the dumbest post ever… along comes something like this…"
Together, they had amassed more than 1.8 million views at the time of this writing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Czz2pBxNk-_/
Although the 19-second clip was taken from an authentic 33-minute video, the audio in the shorter clip was digitally manipulated to make it appear that AOC had launched into an incoherent discourse on the meaning of "ceasefire," which is why we rated the 19-second clip "Fake." The added material was fabricated.
The authentic, 33-minute video came from an Instagram Live AOC recorded on Oct. 23, 2023, during which she called for a bilateral ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza War. Ocasio-Cortez also uploaded the Instagram Live to YouTube .
The start of the clip that would be digitally altered can be seen at 12:50 in the authentic YouTube footage, and it ended at 13:09 , when AOC pulls the same face in both videos.
Ocasio-Cortez did not say "ceasefire means that somebody sees a fire," or words to that effect, at any point in the 33-minute YouTube video.
The 19-second clip included a watermark for an Instagram account called @c3pmeme, which first posted the manipulated footage on Nov. 17, 2023 . The caption explained it was digitally altered: "AOC explains a cease fire... #deepfake #aoc."
C3PMeme also posted the manipulated clip on Facebook .
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