Earlier this month, the 春色直播 men's hockey team took on the United States in the final game of the 4 Nations Face-Off amid tensions between the two countries as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to impose steep tariffs on 春色直播 goods.聽
Canada's Connor McDavid fired in the overtime goal to win the tournament, and as hockey fans celebrated the victory, social media posts circulated online, appearing to show players from Canada and the United States insulting each other's countries and leaders. However, many of the posts use manipulated media. Here's a look at some examples.
'Parody' deepfakes target Connor McDavid
On the day of the final, a video , formerly known as Twitter, shows McDavid appearing to insult Trump and Americans after the victory during a press conference.聽
鈥淭hese American rednecks really thought they could beat us in hockey, the game that we have dominated before Trump was born. After tonight I want the U.S.A. to be the 11 province of Canada,鈥 McDavid appears to say in the video, which as of Friday afternoon had 2.8 million views, 20,000 likes, 2,200 shares and more than 340 comments, some questioning whether the video was real.
An alternate version on Feb. 21 shows McDavid employing vulgar language to insult Trump. 鈥淭he Americans didn鈥檛 respect us. They never have,鈥 McDavid appears to say. 鈥淚n the end, everyone bows their head to the lord and that lord, the one true God of hockey is Team (expletive) Canada.鈥
As of Friday afternoon, it received more than 113,000 views and 4,000 likes, while yet another of the McDavid interview, posted on TikTok, received more than 450 likes with more than 39,000 views.
Rating: AI-generated聽
In all the versions McDavid鈥檚 face eyes and lips are altered and the accounts that created the videos admit they were using AI.聽
Among the comments under the first video, the account that shared it described it as generated by artificial intelligence and linked to a on YouTube by the user DangerousAI.聽
The itself also has a DangerousAI watermark with the URL of the creator's YouTube page, whose "about" section describes its content as 鈥淎I parody.鈥 There is also a disclaimer explaining the videos are scripted: "it鈥檚 not real quotes or opinions of those people in the videos."聽
For the second video, faint grey script indicates it is a 鈥減arody 100% made with AI,鈥 and mentions , a site that lets users clone the voice of any speaker and create videos using their own script.聽
The account that appears to have created the video and it to YouTube, , describes itself as the 鈥渘umber 1 AI content creator on YouTube.鈥澛
The account that posted the third video, , describes itself as a 鈥渄aily dose of hockey humor and player roasts.鈥 The description accompanying the video also comes with a 鈥渃reator labelled as AI-generated鈥 tag, and most of the creator's content appears to be similarly edited using AI.聽
The AI-generated videos appear to use as a base a press conference McDavid gave on Feb. 12, a week before the final took place.聽
The video of that press conference, posted by McDavid's regular NHL team the Edmonton Oilers, is a visual match to the ones used in the AI-manipulated videos. McDavid's hair and clothing, the background and the reporters' microphones all match, but none of what's heard in the manipulated videos appears in the Oilers video.
Auston Matthews also targeted
Another posted to TikTok features American player Auston Matthews, who captains the Toronto Maple Leafs, appearing to put down 春色直播s after his team beat Canada 3-1 in the earlier stages of the tournament on Feb. 15.
鈥淐anada has nothing going for them 鈥 Free health care. Sick, maybe use it to check for depression after that fat L,鈥 Matthews appears to say, adding he plays for 鈥渃ommunist Toronto.鈥
鈥淚 think they would have been better off putting that commie Trudeau in net 鈥. Anyways, it doesn鈥檛 matter cause next year in the Olympics Canada will be a (expletive) state.鈥澛
The video, posted by RealNHLinterviews on Feb. 16, garnered 10,600 likes and one million views as of Friday morning.聽
Rating: AI-generated
As with the mock McDavid interview, the RealNHLinterviews deepfake contains a 鈥淎I-generated鈥 tag in its description.聽
The transitions and edits are rough and jarring, indicating heavy-handed splicing.聽
A keyword search brought up a video published by the Toronto Maple Leafs of a press conference held before the United States took on Canada for the first game, which appears to be what the TikTok creator used as a base. The microphones, Matthews' clothes and the background all match the altered video. 聽聽
Unattributed quote from satirical site
A Feb. 21 from MadeInCanada, which describes itself as 鈥淐anada鈥檚 largest independent news source for everything pop culture and sports related,鈥 shows an image of a victorious McDavid with a quote attributed to him.聽
鈥淲e actually ended up using America鈥檚 favourite strategy against them,鈥 the McDavid quote reads. 鈥淚 wanted the trophy, so I took it without asking them what they thought,鈥 聽
The post garnered 356,000 views, 11,000 likes and was shared 1,300 times, as of Friday morning.
Rating: False/parody
Searching Google for the quote brought up an on Feb. 21 from the Beaverton, a satirical news site. The quote also appears on the Beaverton , which includes a disclaimer that says, "All articles contained within this website and on its social media accounts, however similar to real events, are fictitious."
No reputable news site has reported this quote as authentic.聽
The post from MadeInCanada does not attribute the quote to the site, however, a community note, X's crowdsourced fact-checking program, was added to the post pointing out the quote鈥檚 origins.
Did Trump accuse Canada of cheating?
A supposed Truth Social post by U.S. President Donald Trump has also spread on . An account shared a screenshot of a post in which the American president appears to accuse Canada of cheating.
鈥淚t was a rigged game. The 51 state of Canada can鈥檛 win without cheating. Governor Trudeau knows how weak their country is and it is an embarrassment, trust me. Pierre Poilievre would be a much better governor than him. As for our loser hockey team, I just asked Elon to cut their budget, because losers don鈥檛 deserve funding,鈥 the screenshot post reads, and the text goes on to accuse the referees of corruption.聽
The Threads post received 330 likes, 317 comments, and was shared 73 times, as of Friday morning.
Rating: Lacks evidence
A keyword search of the quote brought up no matching results.聽
The post could not be found on Trump's Truth Social , however, on the Feb. 20, the day of the final, Trump did share a provocative regarding the game on his page.
"I鈥檒l be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State,鈥 he wrote.
A search through of Trump's Truth Social found no saved version of the post from Feb. 20 or 21.
The account that shared the apparent Truth Social post on Threads said they took a screenshot of the post. However, the account then expressed confusion about what is real and fake after another user questioned the source of the supposed post in the comments.
鈥淪eems to be parody. Can鈥檛 tell anymore with the things he says out loud! Can鈥檛 imagine what he says inside!鈥 the .
Sources
Altered videos of Connor McDavid interview can be found on X (, ) and (, ), TikTok () and YouTube (), (), ()
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Altered of Auston Matthews interview posted on TikTok ()
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on X about supposed Connor McDavid quote ()
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Threads posts about fake Donald Trump Truth Social post can be found () and ()
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Archives from archive.today of Trump's Truth Social and
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