The Ethiopian government released an AI-fabricated audio
HaqCheck was encountered with viral social media posts that claim that the phone call conversation between Mihret Wedajo and a Fano member released by the Ethiopian government to prove that Fano militias assassinated Girma Yeshitla was examined and debunked by an American organization called ‘Digi Forensic Experts’ as an AI constructed audio.
The claim emerged after the government blamed the Fano militia for murdering the Amhara Prosperity Party head Girma Yeshitla and released an audio that claimed to be a phone call conversation between the militia group’s leader Mihret Wedajo, and Belete Shegaw, a member of the militant group.
Screenshots of the result of the claimed audio forensic investigation circulated across social media platforms.
However, HaqCheck couldn’t find any organizational entity on the Internet registered as ‘Digi Forensic Experts’ and the alleged investigation of the audio released by the Ethiopian government couldn’t be found.
Additionally, the call number given on the screenshots belongs to a company named Digital Forensic Experts and the postal code, street address, and suite address belong to another film company. The text and the images are blurred.
Amharic is the second most-spoken language in the world
A claim was made on Twitter in the second week of May alleging that Amharic is the second most-spoken language in the world after Arabic.
HaqCheck used statistical data from Ethnologue, an annual statistics publication that is one of the top sources of world language statistics, to cross-check the claim.
Therefore, it was found out that Amharic is not the world’s second most-spoken language.
In terms of native speakers, Chinese Mandarin is the first, Spanish is the second, and English is the third.
Regarding total speakers, English is the first, Chinese Mandarin the second, and Hindi the third.
However, according to the publication, Amharic is the second most-spoken Semitic language next to Arabic although research say that Amharic is a mixture of Kushitic and Semitic languages.
Recommendations
HaqCheck advises that social media users should be cautious of posts that may not be factual or truthful. Before reacting and sharing social media content with others, they should try to verify their authenticity.
To ensure that the public and media have timely briefings and updates, it is requested that public authorities and other bodies make information available and easily accessible.
It should be ensured that access to information is guaranteed. The absence of reliable information causes a much higher incidence of the dissemination of incorrect information.
We recommend that creators of social media content be responsible and avoid contributing to the dissemination of disinformation.
