EDITORIAL — Again with the fakery

The issue regarding the drowning of two Ateneo student athletes during a team-building activity in Aurora, Quezon is still raging hot.

This after an image purportedly showing one of the athletes, Rene Baterbonia, standing on a beach with his legs tied with rope, became viral online.

Earlier, rumors spread that the two drowned because they were made to swim with bound hands and feet. Video shows them being brought in from the sea without any such restraints, but it would seem some malicious actors want to keep untruths alive.

The fake image was uploaded by a Facebook user whose post has reached over 1,900 reactions, 700 comments and 200 shares.

“Paano di malulunod ang tao dito nakatali ang paa at kamay mo tapos nasa dagat pa. Grabe naman ang training na yan,” the Facebook user said in her post.

The image has been proven fake. To the untrained eye it looks real, and this is because it was sourced from an actual image of Baterbonia. Whoever altered the photo preserved his head, torso, and shorts, but edited in arms placed behind his back and feet bound with rope.

Not only is the image a blatant ploy to gather likes and shares, it’s also something meant to mislead. We don’t even have to mention how disrespectful it is to Baterbonia’s family.

We hope whoever decided to create and publish this image gets punished.

The fact that the original post was shared 200 times means that that much people believed the image was legit.

Looking at this fake photo of a bound Baterbonia, one can easily see that the image is too “perfect”. The lighting is spot on as if he’s in a studio instead of outside in a beach, his stance looks posed, and he is perfectly in frame as if the shot was taken by a professional.

Real photos and videos are seldom perfect.

Like we said before, one skill we need these days is how to be able to spot AI-generated videos or images, or photos that have been doctored. This is so that we won’t be easily fooled into believing anything anyone posts online.