Video of footballer Maarten Paes 'speaking fluent Indonesian' is manipulated

Published on October 11, 2024 at 06:38
3 min read
By AFP Indonesia

A manipulated video appearing to show the Indonesian football team's new goalkeeper Maarten Paes speaking fluent Indonesian has fooled social media users in the Southeast Asian archipelago. The video -- viewed more than a million times -- originally showed him giving an interview in English. Dutch-born Paes recently said he was still learning the Indonesian language.

"When Maarten Paes is speaking the Indonesian language," read a Facebook post written in Indonesian from October 5.

It included a video that appeared to show Paes saying in Indonesian: "You're always nervous in a way because of the new beginnings, new team. You always want to leave a very good first impression, so you're always looking forward to it."

The Netherlands-born goalkeeper -- who plays for American football club FC Dallas -- became an Indonesian citizen in April (archived link).

He made his debut with Indonesia in September.

Screenshot of the post with the edited video, taken October 10, 2024

The video was also shared on TikTok, while similar clips falsely purporting to show the player speaking fluent Indonesian also circulated on Facebook, TikTok and SnackVideo, racking up more than one million views in total.

The posts surfaced as Indonesia was set to play Bahrain on October 10 and China on October 15 for the Asian qualifiers of the 2026 World Cup.

Some social media users appeared to believe the video was genuine.

"Awesome, Paes, you're already fluent in Indonesian," one commented.

"Wow. Amazing, you are already good at speaking Indonesian, thank you. Good luck Bang Paes, hopefully the national team can get 3 points in Bahrain," another wrote.

However, in a video posted by Indonesian sports website BolaSport on September 9, Paes said he was still trying to learn Indonesian (archived link).

"I am learning every day with Sandy," he said, referring to teammate Sandy Walsh.

"I have a book that I learn with. It's getting better and better. So, maybe next month or the month after, I'd do this interview fully in Bahasa," he said. Bahasa Indonesia is the word for the national language.

Moreover, a Google reverse image search and keyword searches found the original video posted on the X account of FC Dallas on October 2, 2024 (archived link).

The video shows Paes speaking in English, making the same remarks translated into Indonesian in the manipulated video.

The X post is captioned: "Before his next call up, Maarten reflects on his first experience with the Indonesian Men’s National Team."

Below is a screenshot comparison between the edited video (left) and the original footage of Paes' interview in English (right):

Comparison between the manipulated clip (left) and the original video from FC Dallas's X account (right).

AFP has fact-checked a spate of videos edited to make it appear prominent individuals were fluent in another language.

Many of these videos have circulated in Indonesia and portrayed the archipelago's top officials, including president-elect Prabowo Subianto and his vice presidential running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

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