Photo Credit: Getty Images

Sacré bleu! Is that video of France’s president Emmanuel Macron making out with a male friend on a boat real?

No, it absolutely is not—it’s just an AI deepfake. But… it is still kind of hot, no? (Sorry not sorry!)

If you’ve been on Twitter X in the past week or so, chances are you’ve seen a series of photos of Macron vacationing at Fort Brégançon, the historic holiday residence off the French Riviera. The president was spotted on a boat with a number of friends—all shirtless and in swim trunks—rough-housing and having some fun in the sun.

Despite the fact that these look like stills ripped directly from a gay adult film for those who like their men a bit older (call it “BelAmi: Where Are They Now?”), the photographs themselves are very much real and have captured the public’s imagination.

As one X user cheekily pointed out, it looks as if Macron was celebrating the 2024 Paris Olympics with a nod to traditional Greco-Roman wrestling!

But recently, someone on the internet (the original source is not immediately clear at this time) used these images to create an AI-generated clip that depicted Macron locking lips with the bald-headed man in the black swimsuit. And at first glimpse, it’s fairly convincing!

Take a closer look a you’ll see some strange details that just feel off: Why are the rocks in the background constantly shifting? Why does it look like Macron’s stomach is billowing in the wind? How is that guy’s hand completely detaching from his arm???

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It should be obvious the video is a total fake, but so-called “Media & News Company” World War Now—which appears to have no accreditation whatsoever—shared a screenshot of the kissing clip, intentionally making it more difficult to discern what’s real and what isn’t.

From their verified X account (which we’ll remind you means nothing in the Elon Musk era of the app, when anyone can pay for the blue checkmark icon to appear on their profile), @WorldWarNow_ posted the fake image and others, writing, “New photos appear to show French President Emmanuel Macron kissing a man and being fruity as hell.”

Thankfully, a Community Note (one of the only good things to come out of the app’s Musk era) on their post has clarified the image in question is from a video that is “fake and AI generated,” pointing to legitimate sources that have published the actual un-doctored photographs.

Unfortunately the damage was already done. The fakes only went more viral when X user @amuse shared a screenshot of @WorldWarNow_’s post, writing, “Why are French people freaking out after learning what everyone else in the world already knew?,” which BBC Verify journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh reported had over 9.2 million views before it was deleted. In other words, a lot of people fell for a fake. Again.

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But we didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree—these photos exists in the context of all in which we live and what came before us….

First of all, Macron isn’t gay, as much as we’d like the handsome French politician to be. He’s been married to former teacher Brigitte Marie-Claude Macron since 2007, though rumors of his sexuality and of secret male lovers have followed the president before.

And, yes, quite a few people were upset to see Macron relaxing at Fort Brégançon—though not because he was bro-ing out with the bros. The issue for many was that he was doing this instead of attending the Olympic games, for which Paris is the host city.

Macron cheering on Team France at the 2024 Paris Olympics | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Not to mention, he was vacationing at a time when France is embroiled in political turmoil (who among us isn’t?), a mere month after the country’s far-right National Rally party nearly won the election to take control of French Parliament.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that the deepfake video came from the president’s opposition, some homophobe attempting to paint Macron in a negative light.

In any event, mystery debunked. That video you may have seen of Macron appearing to another guy on a boat is absolutely a fake. Though we still get a little excited watching it, don’t you?

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