Cristiano Ronaldo clip altered to show football star 'speaking Arabic'
- Published on September 20, 2024 at 10:50
- 3 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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"Ronaldo speaks Arabic fluently," read the Indonesian-language caption of a Facebook reel from May 17, 2024.
The clip appears to show Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr in January 2023, speaking in fluent Arabic (archived link).
He purportedly says: "I like it when people doubt me, and I prove again that the year was successful. I had a bit of a tough journey last year, but I'm happy that those things happened because they make me feel stronger. I was the top striker, and I had a great season."
"Your Arabic is very fluent, Dodo," read superimposed text on the clip, using a nickname for Ronaldo.
Similar clips racked up more than 3.4 million views after being shared elsewhere on Facebook here and here, as well as on YouTube here.
The clip circulating online, however, was edited from a video of Ronaldo being interviewed in English.
The former Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus player is a frequent target of misinformation, some of which AFP has debunked here.
Globe Soccer Awards
A combination of reverse image searches on Google and keyword searches on YouTube led to a similar video published on the verified YouTube channel of Guardian Football on January 20, 2024 (archived link).
The Guardian Football video is titled, "Cristiano Ronaldo: Saudi League better than Ligue 1 and I'm still outscoring Haaland".
Its description said Ronaldo was speaking at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, which was held on January 19 (archived link).
The altered clip shared online corresponds to Ronaldo's comments at the Guardian Football video's 39-second mark.
"I'm a professional 22 years. It's part of my journey to be a better man, a better player, a better father," he says in English.
"So, it's good. I like when the people doubt about me and I prove again that one year was successful. I had last year a little bit difficult journey, but I'm glad that that things happened because make me feel more strong. And you can see this year I did a fantastic season."
Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and the Guardian Football video (right):
The same footage can be seen at the 18:15 mark of a longer video posted by the Globe Soccer Awards' verified YouTube channel on February 3, 2024 (archived link).
Derry Wijaya, an associate professor of data science at Monash University Indonesia, told AFP on September 19 that the video appeared to be "AI generated".
She said it was probably created by using a sample of Ronaldo's voice.
Wijaya said there are clues the video was AI generated: "The voice is too clear. If someone speaks on the stage, there will be a thinking pause. And because he is on the stage, there must be an echo sound from the microphone."
"But the video seems like it was recorded in a closed studio -- no pause, no accent, no echo," she said.
AFP extracted the audio from the altered clip and ran it through Loccus.ai -- an audio tool that looks for specific forensic traces left by voice generators.
The result also showed a 94-percent probability the audio was generated with an AI tool.
AFP previously debunked other misleading claims circulating in Indonesia about public figures speaking Arabic here and here.
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