The United States did not deploy hundreds of containers of missiles and military vehicles to the Philippines, which is embroiled in territorial disputes, contrary to a YouTube thumbnail falsely reporting a visit from the US to deliver the supplies.
A video posted on June 3 by MILITARY INFORMATION claimed that the massive military shipment arrived at the Dibacong Fish Harbor in Casiguran, Aurora on June 2:
US deploys hundreds of containers of missiles and military equipment to the Philippines.
The thumbnail presented a manipulated image of a cargo ship to which the pictures of containers, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Special Assistant to the President Antonio Ernesto Lagdameo, and National Security Adviser Eduardo Año were inserted.
A reverse image search revealed that the image including the four was originally taken during President Marcos’ second official visit to the United States in which he attended the Armed Forces Full Honors Ceremony at Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on May 3, 2023. The photo was taken by Sgt. XaViera Masline of the U.S. Army Multimedia and Visual Information Division.
Marcos and Austin spoke at the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue last May 31 to June 2, 2024 in Singapore. Marcos denounced illegal acts in the South China Sea in response to China’s heightened aggression, while Austin highlighted the importance of the Asia-Pacific region to the United States.
As for the alleged delivery of missiles and equipment, the video attributed it to Balikatan, the joint military exercise between the US and the Philippines.
However, Balikatan 2024, participated in by more than 16,000 service members, ended May 10.
The last known visit of US troops to the Dibacong Fish Harbor was on April 17, 2023 for Balikatan 2023.
YouTube has tagged the video as “altered or synthetic content,” which it defines as a video where sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated.
A quick scan performed by Deepware.ai labeled the video as suspicious per the Seferbekov and Ensemble model. In a research performed by Meta, Seferbekov ended up as the highest rated model, able to detect artificial intelligence 65% of the time.
The video has since received over 64,846 views and 947 likes. The channel, MILITARY INFORMATION, was created last March 19, 2020 and has garnered over 42,700 subscribers. (MDC)