This video has been doctored from a clip of former US President Barack Obama unveiling a portrait of himself

This article is more than one year old.
Published on July 22, 2019 at 11:00
3 min read
By AFP Indonesia

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook and YouTube in June 2019 which claim it shows former US president Barack Obama unveiling a photo of Indonesian opposition candidate Prabowo Subianto. The claim is false; the video has been doctored from a longer video which shows Obama unveiling a portrait of himself in February 2018.

The 59-second video was shared in a Facebook post here on June 26, 2019.

It was viewed more than 50,000 times and shared more than 2,500 times before it was removed.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Screenshot of a misleading post

The video purports to show former US president Barack Obama unveiling a photo of Prabowo Subianto, the opposition candidate during the April 2019 Indonesian presidential election.

The Indonesian language caption translates to English as: “BARACK OBAMA on behalf of the United States, has stated the victory of PRABOWO - SANDI. Make this video viral now
Thank you…
ALLAH IS GREAT…”

“PRABOWO-SANDI” refers to Prabowo and his running mate Sandiaga Uno.

This is an AFP’s report about the Indonesian 2019 presidential election.

Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was re-elected president in 2019 Indonesian election. Here is an AFP report about the polls.

The same video was published on Facebook here and here with a similar claim, and on YouTube here and here.

The claim is false; the footage has been doctored from a longer video which shows Obama unveiling his own portrait at an event held by the US-based Smithsonian Institution in February 2018.

In the misleading video, the Smithsonian logo and name can be seen on the podium.

Below is a screenshot of the podium, which AFP has circled in red (top), and a comparison with the institution’s logo seen on its website (bottom):

Smithsonian logo in the misleading video (top) and in the institution’s website (bottom)

Keyword searches on YouTube found this video published by CNN’s official YouTube channel on February 12, 2018. It is titled: “President Obama’s official portrait unveiled.”

In the YouTube clip, Obama and US artist Kehinde Wiley can be seen pulling off a black cover from the portrait to reveal the image of Obama.

Obama’s portrait can be seen at the 30-second mark in the CNN video.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading Facebook post (top) and the CNN video (bottom):

Comparison of the video in the misleading Facebook post (top) and the CNN video (bottom)

The same event can also be seen in this video published by Smithsonian’s official YouTube channel on February 12, 2018.

The YouTube video’s title states: “Obama Portrait Unveiling at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery”.

The video’s caption states: “The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery unveils its commissioned portraits of former President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama by artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively. Remarks by President Obama and Mrs. Obama, Smithsonian Secretary David Skorton, National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet and artists Wiley and Sherald.”

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