Video of Indonesian President Joko Widodo dubbed with audio to offer fabricated 'cash grant'

Published on July 25, 2024 at 11:54
3 min read
By AFP Indonesia

A clip of Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo inaugurating a dam in May was altered to make it appear it shows him promising a "cash grant" before his term ends in October 2024. But the audio was fabricated. No mention of the cash aid was made in the original video.

"Before my term ends, I will announce a cash grant of 500 million rupiah ($30,800) specifically for those who have followed me and shared this video with 30 of your TikTok friends," Jokowi appears to say in a TikTok video posted on June 29, 2024.

Overlaid text on the video mentioned a different amount and said Jokowi will offer 50 million rupiah ($3,800) "for those who can stop the picture correctly," challenging users to snap a spinning text in the clip in a perfect position.

The superimposed text covered most of Jokowi's mouth in the clip, but at the 14-second mark, it can be seen that Jokowi's lips have stopped moving even if a male voice continues to be heard. Many users seemed to be tricked, however.

"Assalammualaikum, Mr. Jokowi. I would like to ask for your help. I stopped the '50 million' image correctly. Thank you, Sir," said one user.

"With God's will I can do that, Mr. Jokowi," says another.

Screenshot of the altered video, captured on July 23, 2024

Similar videos have been shared on TikTok here, here, and here, as well as on YouTube here and here, racking up more than 640,000 views.

Jokowi was constitutionally barred from running for a third term in Indonesia's presidential polls in February, which saw ex-general Prabowo Subianto elected as the next president of the world's third-largest democracy. Prabowo is due to take office in October.

However, the video was manipulated. The original video does not mention anything about cash aid.

Dam inauguration

A combination of reverse image search on Yandex and keyword search on Instagram found a video uploaded by Jokowi's official account on May 3, 2024 (archived link).

The caption of the video says Jokowi inaugurated a new dam in the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province of central Indonesia on the previous day.

Below is a comparison between the altered video (left) and the video from Jokowi's official Instagram account (right):

Comparison between the altered video (left) and the video from Jokowi's official Instagram account (right)

In the original video, Jokowi says, "In this morning, I am at Tiu Suntuk dam. It is in Sumbawa Barat Regency, West Nusa Tenggara Province. I am here with Mr. Minister of Infrastructure."

He did not mention any cash giveaways in the video.

The Indonesian government covered the inaguration here and here (archived links here and here).

"It is one of the largest dams in the province built to supply water for irrigation and to reduce the risk of flooding," one of the reports said.

Indonesian media outlets also reported on the visit here and here (archived links here and here).

AFP has previously debunked similar false claims of Jokowi promising a cash handout or a giveaway here and here.

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