Can we still believe what we see?
The recent airing on TikTok of fake Tom Cruise videos with striking realism foreshadows an era of doubt.
Blame it on "deepfake", this technology which, thanks to artificial intelligence, allows for example to superimpose the face of a person on the body of another.
The correctional court of Versailles (Yvelines) will ask a question of this nature on Monday.
He will have to say if a video, presumed outrageous against a magistrate and attributed to Dieudonné, is authentic or if it is a “deepfake” as claimed by the controversial comedian.
“This is the first time in press law that an alleged perpetrator has used the
deepfake
defense
.
In this case, it is a fallacious process and a fanciful thesis ”, affirms Me Rémi-Pierre Drai, lawyer of the magistrate of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) who lodged a complaint against Dieudonné after the posting, the April 8, 2020 on YouTube, in a video of nearly 11 minutes.
In search of the filming location
Interpreting an article in Le Parisien, devoted to the trial of a pharmacist judged on April 2 for having sold masks more expensive than the authorized price, Dieudonné vilifies the deputy prosecutor who requested at the hearing.
He denounces his "wickedness" and his "arrogance", the trade of "subsidized" and draws a parallel with the women shorn at the Liberation.
Heard during the preliminary investigation, Dieudonné did not seek to justify himself in the field of freedom of expression.
He remained silent, just ensuring that he was a total stranger to this video.
“It's not me on this video.
I am neither the author nor the distributor.
This video amused me in some ways, but I have nothing to do with this story, ”he confirmed on November 16, 2020 before the Versailles Criminal Court.
The prosecutor, him, rejected the argument of the "deepfake" advanced by the defendant's lawyer (Me David de Stefabo underlined the absence of proof and pleaded the release), demanding a penalty of 20,000 euros fine .
But the president ordered more information.
"No pixels, no blur, no fading"
Entrusted to the gendarmes of Dreux (Eure-et-Loir), these investigations mainly consisted of trying to find the location of the shooting of the incriminated video.
Despite a search of the premises of the production company linked to Dieudonné and then to his home, the searches “turned out to be in vain”.
Is this finding sufficient to prove the “deepfake” theory?
The magistrate's lawyer believes that this in no way proves that Dieudonné was the victim of a malicious identity theft and a "deepfake" conceived in six short days.
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“The quality and the setting of the video show that it is not a trick.
There are no pixels, no blurring, no fading, details common with deepfakes.
We find there the statuette carrying a quenelle or the pineapple, objects present in the videos of Dieudonné ", argues Me Rémi-Pierre Drai, according to which the movements and the words of the humorist are" perfectly coordinated ".
He also maintains that the voice, the language, the tics, the lexical fields and the rhetoric are in all points analogous to the other videos of Dieudonné.
"This video is therefore authentic", concludes the lawyer who claims 15,000 euros in moral damages for "extremely violent and gratuitous remarks.
"
Real video or "deepfake"?
The court resumes proceedings on Monday.