Recordings with Hitler’s voice are creating a sensation on TikTok
The voice in the short TikTok recording sounds like Adolf Hitler’s. You can also see his photo. Accompanied by dramatic music, you can hear a fragment of one of Hitler’s speeches, but in English. This voice was created by artificial intelligence. Above the post there is an inscription: “Just listen,” ZDF reported.
The voice says, among other things: “Before we attacked Warsaw, I called for surrender five times. Everything was rejected! I asked that at least the women and children be sent back. (…) Everything was rejected and only then did I decide to do what was permissible by the law of war,” the German station reported.
The recording was deleted, but had previously been viewed over a million times. Many TikTok users responded positively to this content in the comments. “It changed my opinion about him,” they said. “Maybe he’s not such a criminal after all,” others admitted, as seen in screenshots from the left-wing nonprofit Media Matters for America.
This passage is in fact an exact translation of a speech given by Hitler on November 8, 1942 at the Loewenbraeukeller in Munich. By claiming that he complied with the laws of war, the mass murderer turned the truth on its head – recalled the ZDF website. “By the way, in the same speech in Munich, Hitler again announced the +extermination of Jews in Europe+. Of course, TikTok users were not informed about this,” the station noted.
Exploitation of Nazi speeches by AI
In many cases, fragments of real speeches are set to music, Hitler’s voice is reproduced using artificial intelligence, and the criminal’s speeches are translated into English or other languages. “March music of the Third Reich and speeches of other Nazis, e.g. Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, are also used,” ZDF reported.
The clips regularly violate TikTok’s community rules, which explicitly prohibit promoting “hateful ideologies” or glorifying mass murderers. In addition, content generated by artificial intelligence on TikTok must always be marked as such materials, German media stressed.
The problem is that video creators get around the rules by tricking automated systems. Hitler is not mentioned by name – films often refer to him as a “great painter” or “Austrian painter”, an allusion to his unsuccessful career as an artist. In addition, the recordings are usually accompanied by modern music. This makes quick identification of this content almost impossible – we read on the ZDF website.
So far, TikTok has been able to remove many videos and ban users. However, the analysis carried out by ZDF showed that new variants of such materials are constantly emerging, which effectively bypass existing regulations.
From Berlin Berenika Lemańczyk (PAP)