Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks with media on Parliament Hill after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Canada-U.S. Relations and National Security, in Ottawa, Thursday, March 27, 2025. A video recently shared on social media uses a clip from that news conference, but the audio has been altered using artificial intelligence voice-cloning technology. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks with media on Parliament Hill after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Canada-U.S. Relations and National Security, in Ottawa, Thursday, March 27, 2025. A video recently shared on social media uses a clip from that news conference, but the audio has been altered using artificial intelligence voice-cloning technology. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
A video shared on social media appears to show Prime Minister Mark Carney saying 25-year-old cars will be taken off the road, among other vehicle restrictions. The claim is false. Carney has not made an announcement to that effect, and the video has been digitally altered.
A May 4 on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows Prime Minister Mark Carney, standing at a podium backed by a pair of Canadian flags, appearing to roll out a set of vehicle policies. “Effective June 1st, all vehicles manufactured before 2000 will be gradually phased off Canadian roads due to safety and emissions standards,†he says.
Carney adds that “non-compliant window tints†must be replaced within 14 days and that lift and levelling kits on trucks must be removed for safety reasons. “It doesn't make sense to have a truck jacked in the air.â€
The post had been viewed more than 1.5 million times on X as of May 8.Â
The false information in the video was also parroted by influencers, with one TikTok garnering more than one million views on that platform and 196,100 more as of May 8.
RATING: Altered video
A user name embedded in the X video indicates it was taken from a TikTok post (), which had garnered more than two million views before it was taken down.
A reverse image search of screengrabs from the video found the clip was taken from a press conference in Ottawa on March 27, where Carney outlined his response to the latest round of U.S. tariffs. In both recordings, the prime minister seems to be wearing the same suit with an Order of Canada pin on the lapel.
The 35-second snippet begins , with the gestures and clothing identical to those seen in the X post.
However, the audio is entirely fabricated. At first listen, the voice sounds similar to Carney’s, but the words are completely different from those in his speech: “It's my solemn promise that when President Trump threatens us — again — we will fight back.â€
The post includes a watermark for the artificial intelligence platform , which the creator's TikTok caption says was used to generate the audio. Drawing on "voice-cloning" technology, the AI program can hoover up clips and spit out a passable impersonation of the speaker’s voice.
The TikTok post also states, "Creator labelled as AI-generated." On X, a community note — where users can add context such as fact checks to a post — says the "video has been digitally altered." That reality slipped by many commenters, one of whom wrote, "they voted for this!" However, a handful of others pointed out they could find no announcements or news on the supposed vehicle phaseout.
READ MY LIPS
Carney's lip movement does not align perfectly with the words spoken, and appears to have been digitally manipulated.
°µÍø½ûÇø ran the video through deepfake detector , a project by the University at Buffalo's Media Forensic Lab. Uploading the video to the site generated results from several different detection methods, one of which found there was a 99.9 per cent likelihood the video was AI-generated, based on evident "face warping." Others registered a much lower likelihood.
ElevenLabs, a voice-cloning platform, determined the audio had an 84 per cent probability of being made using its own technology.
Deepfakes are still images, audio and video that have been manipulated or wholly created by AI tools.Â
Detectors on their own are not reliable as proof of a deepfake, but can be deployed in tandem with other methods, such as searching to see if any news sources have reported on the video's content.
While the original TikTok post has been removed from the platform — the account has vanished, too — the video continues to circulate online via other social media accounts.
The TikToker who repeated the phaseout falsehoods issued a the next day that acknowledged the video as AI-manipulated and “misinformation.â€Â
“I didn’t catch it. It didn’t have the usual pauses and breaks,†the creator said in the followup post, which was viewed 113,800 times on TikTok and 36,400 times as of May 8.
SOURCES
Claim posted on X (), and again (), and on TikTok May 4, 2025 ()
Archived version of original altered video posted to TikTok
Prime Minister Mark Carney outlines federal response to latest U.S. tariffs – March 27, 2025. CPAC, via . March 27, 2025 ()
Fish Audio . Accessed May 7, 2025 ()
DeepFake-O-Meter. University of Buffalo Media Forensics Lab . Accessed May 7, 2025 ()
Correction post by influencer on May 5, 2025 () and May 5, 2025 ()
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