{"id":11341,"date":"2025-07-10T11:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T10:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=11341"},"modified":"2025-07-10T11:53:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T10:53:01","slug":"fake-video-misuses-identity-and-image-of-actor-boris-cavazza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/10\/fake-video-misuses-identity-and-image-of-actor-boris-cavazza\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake Video Misuses Identity and Image of Actor Boris Cavazza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

 Original article<\/a> (in Slovenian) was published on 9\/7\/2025; Author: Alja\u017e Primo\u017ei\u010d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A professional group specializing in deepfake analysis has confirmed for Razkrinkavanje.si that 83 percent of the audio in the video does not match the characteristics of human speech.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Facebook page Great Wall Golf Club posted a video on 20 June purportedly showing a segment from the TV show Tar\u010da, aired on Slovenian public television TV Slovenija. The post included the caption: \u201cFamous actor recounts how he nearly ended up in a wheelchair because of pills \u2013 and how Dr Erik Brecelj\u2019s cream got him back on his feet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the video, the TV show’s host, Erika \u017dnidar\u0161i\u010d, introduces testimony by actor Boris Cavazza, claiming he had taken a strong stand against a group of pharmacists \u201cafter they tried to ban a treatment method developed by Dr Erik Brecelj.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While introducing Cavazza\u2019s supposed statement, the video shows various photos of him and an apparent courtroom clip where he appears to physically confront pharmacists. In one image, the actor is shown accompanied by two police officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this statement, Cavazza claims that doctors diagnosed him with \u201carthritis and nerve compression in the lower back,\u201d and that Dr Brecelj\u2019s formula was the what allowed him to live pain-free again. The video ends with an audio clip from an interview in which Dr Brecelj discusses the ban on the sale of the cream he allegedly developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time of publication, the alleged segment of the show had been viewed by 22,000 Facebook users, liked by 79, and shared by 10. The post also includes a broken link to a website offering the alleged cream for purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A review of past episodes of Tar\u010da and other online content revealed the original context of four clips shown in the video. The segment with Erika \u017dnidar\u0161i\u010d was taken from an episode<\/a> on peer violence that aired on 3 April this year. The courtroom fight, supposedly involving Cavazza, is in fact footage of an incident<\/a> in the Georgian parliament that took place last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footage showing Boris Cavazza originates from a video<\/a> posted on 19 February 2019 on the Facebook page of the project Bodi dober, bodi kul<\/em> (Be Good, Be Cool), where the actor gives life advice to children. The excerpt featuring Dr Brecelj comes from the Slovenian government\u2019s podcast<\/a> GOVSI, published on 6 June this year, in which Brecelj discusses the Slovenian healthcare system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Medical Chamber of Slovenia, which warned about identity misuse in a different fake advertisement involving Dr Brecelj in a September 2023 press release<\/a>, described Dr Brecelj as \u201ca specialist in general and abdominal surgery,\u201d with a professional focus on oncological surgery. Rheumatoid arthritis is diagnosed<\/a> by a general practitioner and confirmed by a rheumatologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), which operates within the Misinformation Combat Alliance, assessed the video’s authenticity for Razkrinkavanje.si.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a textbook case of medical misinformation,\u201d the DAU concluded. Their tools revealed a high likelihood that the video was generated using artificial intelligence. Audio analysis software showed that 83 percent of the sound in the video deviates from natural human speech patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In examining the visual elements, DAU analysts identified typical signs of digital manipulation, such as unnaturally dark areas in Cavazza\u2019s mouth, irregular shape and colour of his teeth, and inconsistent lip colour. They also noted unnatural, repetitive hand movements by the TV show host.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mladen Borovi\u010d, a lecturer at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Maribor, likewise confirmed for Razkrinkavanje.si<\/em> that the video is \u201cdefinitely a deepfake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pointed out that in the photo of Cavazza with the two police officers, the faces appear unnatural and pastel-toned, likely due to digital editing. The police uniforms lack Slovenian insignia, and the emblems are illegible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Borovi\u010d\u2019s assessment, \u201cCavazza\u2019s statement is a very convincing deepfake \u2013 his gestures, lip movements, and speech align remarkably well, giving an impression of authenticity.\u201d He added that this part of the video was likely created using publicly available video and audio recordings, of which there are many given that Cavazza is an actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most obvious sign of inauthenticity appears in the segment with Dr Brecelj, which begins with a brief clip where the speech, facial expressions, and lip movements are not synchronized, followed by a blurry screen, according to Borovi\u010d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As tools for generating video and audio content become more advanced, verifying their authenticity is increasingly difficult. Borovi\u010d emphasized the urgent need to clearly label AI-generated content and better educate the public on how to recognize it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cavazza told Razkrinkavanje.si that he was deeply shocked upon seeing the video in which his likeness was used to sell pills. \u201cEverything, absolutely everything, was fabricated. They put words in my mouth that I never said,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that artificial intelligence had constructed an unbelievable story, albeit poorly. He also expressed outrage at the lack of regulation that would prevent such abuse: \u201cThis is madness. It is mad the kind of things they dare do. Shameless. And apparently, with impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have informed the Great Wall Golf Club Facebook page, Tar\u010da host \u017dnidar\u0161i\u010d, and Dr Brecelj of our findings and will publish their responses once we have received them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the Razkrinkavanje.si<\/em> methodology, the post has been rated as fake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 9\/7\/2025; Author: Alja\u017e Primo\u017ei\u010d A professional group specializing in deepfake analysis has confirmed for Razkrinkavanje.si that 83 percent of the audio in the video does not match the characteristics of human speech. The Facebook page Great Wall Golf Club posted a video on 20 June purportedly showing a segment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-11341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-slovenia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11341"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11345,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11341\/revisions\/11345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}