Deepfake mocks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's call for Gaza ceasefire

"Ceasefire means that somebody sees a fire. It could be any kind of fire," Ocasio-Cortez,  known by her initials AOC, appears to say in a video posted November 19, 2023 to Instagram.

"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."

One Facebook user sharing the same clip wrote: "This is the intelligence of our Government Elected officials."

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Screenshot of an Instagram post taken November 28, 2023

Ocasio-Cortez was among 24 members of Congress who signed a letter November 15 (archived here) urging President Joe Biden to support a bilateral ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

The conflict began October 7 when fighters associated with the Palestinian Islamist movement poured into Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 people -- mostly civilians -- and taking some 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel's subsequent air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 15,000 people -- also mostly civilians, according to Hamas officials -- and reduced large parts of the north of the territory to rubble.

A cessation of hostilities is scheduled to end November 30 after a six-day pause in the conflict, during which 60 Israeli hostages and 180 Palestinian prisoners have been released.

In an October 22 Instagram live video also published on YouTube (archived here), Ocasio-Cortez explains her reasons for supporting such a ceasefire, saying it is "for the safety of children."

Nowhere in the clip does she say a ceasefire occurs when "somebody sees a fire."

A watermark on the altered video leads to the parody account C3PMEME, which posted it November 17 on Facebook and Instagram with #deepfake (archived here and here).

A TikTok account with the same name includes a  link to a website featuring parody videos of several political figures and celebrities (archived here).

But users on YouTube, TikTok and  X, formerly Twitter, shared the same video out of context to ridicule Ocasio-Cortez, who is a frequent target of misinformation.

AFP reached out to the lawmaker's office for comment, but no response was forthcoming.

AFP has fact-checked other deepfake videos of US political figures here and here.