Director Jordan Peele uses Barack Obama to spread message about fake news
In a viral video, former President Barack Obama delivers a realistic look at the future of fake news, but the video isn't all it appears to be.
Written by Jordan Peele for Buzzfeed, Obama begins his message with what appears to be a Public Service Announcement, but something seems off.
"We're entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point in time - even if they would never say those things," Obama said. "So, for instance, they could have me say things like, I don't know, (Black Panther's) Killmonger was right! Or, Ben Carson is in the sunken place! Or, how 'bout this - simply, President Trump is a total and complete dipsh*t."
Warning: This video contains graphic language
But Obama wouldn't say those things ... or would he?
As the video soon reveals, the man actually speaking isn't the former commander-in-chief, but rather, Oscar-winning filmmaker Peele with a warning for Americans about the validity of everything they read and heard online.
Peele performed his famous impression of the 44th president over a digitally manipulated video.
"This is a dangerous time," said Peele, posing as Obama. "Moving forward, we need to be more vigilant with what we trust from the internet. It's a time when we need to rely on trusted news sources. It may be basic but how we move forward in the Age of Information is gonna be the difference between whether we survive or whether we become some kind of f***ed-up dystopia."
He ends the video with, "Stay woke, b**ches."
While the video has a comical tone, it talks about a serious issue plaguing Facebook and countless other social media sites.
When it comes to sharing news, videos, or anything viral online, it's best to know where the source's information is coming from and if they are a real news organization.
How was it made?
Buzzfeed said the video was made with another emergency technology FakeApp - a tool used to create photorealistic faceswap videos.
The free application has been popular among social media content creators to produce viral, shareable videos, memes, and GIFs.
In this instance, the creators - Peele and BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti, the filmmaker's brother-in-law - took a video of Obama and pasted Peele's mouth on top.
Buzzfeed reports the video took an estimated 56 hours to complete.
Peele and Peretti came up with the idea in February.
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