Halloween witch surprising opossum video is fake
When it comes to Halloween trick or treating, some people choose not to respond to every doorbell or knock, instead leaving a bowl of candy on the porch for costumed visitors to help themselves.
But some social media users appear to be warming against that practice with a post that claims, “Adorable opossum caught sneaking Halloween candy from a witch’s stash!”
The video, circulating this month, shows an opossum on a porch table, rooting through a bowl of candy. Suddenly, a Halloween decoration of a witch, next to the table, lights up and a recorded voice lets out a loud cackle. The opossum leaps a few feet in the air, crashes down on the table, knocking over the candy bowl and the table, before running away.
It’s a great clip, but it’s fake, according to the News Literacy Project’s RumorGuard. The video was created using artificial intelligence, or AI.
The video includes clues to indicate it is AI-generated content.
The time stamp on the video display is inaccurate and includes jumbled numbers. Blurry portions of the clip seem to indicate a watermark, which is often added to AI-created content, was removed. And some objects appear and disappear throughout the footage.
This season, there have been similar AI-generated videos posted showing various animals startled by Halloween decorations, RumorGuard said.
False quote attributed to Rubio
A recent social media post appears to include a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio about relations between the U.S. and the UK.
“We’ve stopped sharing a lot of intelligence with the UK Government because we no longer see them as reliable,” reads the quote on the post, which is attributed to Marco Rubio, United States secretary of state.
But that post, which includes an image of a stern-looking Rubio, is false, according to Reuters.
There is no evidence that Rubio said this and the statement doesn’t appear in any credible news reports.
“(The quote is) fabricated and should not be attributed in any way to the Secretary or the department,” a State Department spokesperson told Reuters.
The U.S. and Britain, along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are members of the Five Eyes alliance, which last met in September in London.
Post showing UK protest is AI
Last weekend, millions of people throughout the U.S. gathered at various “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump. Much of the photos and video from the rallies ended up on social media.
But one unexpected post appeared to show large crowds demonstrating in the UK.
“This No Kings protest in the UK against Trump and his Nazification of America is amazing,” read the headline of the post which included a video of a group of people chanting and forming the words, “No Kings.”
But this video isn’t real, according to PolitiFact. It was created using artificial intelligence.
While there were some demonstrations in other countries, including England, there are no other reports that show this happening.
PolitiFact list some of the key giveaways that show it is AI generated:
• The video’s audio says “No Kings,” but other parts of the chants sound like gibberish and lip movements don’t seem to correspond with the words.
• The bodies of some people look completely lit up, as if they were spirits.
• Most people in the video are indistinguishable; some look blurry and others are missing extremities.
Jewels not for sale in classified ad
Earlier this month, thieves broke into the Louvre museum in Paris, France, and stole a valuable collection of jewels, with an estimated value of nearly $102 million.
Officials have said the thieves have not been caught, however a post on X appears to offer a clue.
The post includes a photo of a classified ad selling the jewels and reads, “Russians robbed the Louvre — and tried to sell the royal jewels on a Moscow classifieds site. From 'liberating' washing machines to flipping a queen's diadem online. Empire of looters — now with delivery.”
But this classified ad is not real, according to Snopes. The listing was actually a prank.
Avito, the online marketplace that hosted the ad, later posted a statement that it had deleted the listing and blocked the user who posted it.
“People with critical thinking skills understand that this is just a prank. We hope that most people do,” Avito wrote on the social media site Telegram.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.