The Office of Communications (Ofcom) continues to receive complaints about the deepfake video featuring Queen Elizabeth, some two weeks after it aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.
According to Daily Mail, Ofcom has had 347 complaints from viewers who said that the video of Queen Elizabeth, which was interspersed with CGI technology, was disgusting and done in poor taste. Some viewers also turned to social media to express their outrage for the blatant disrespect of the monarch.
One complaint said that it was not right to mock the Queen, especially during a very tough year. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Her Majesty has been showing her leadership by encouraging the British public to hope that this crisis will be over.
However, representatives of Channel 4 said that they really intended to use the deepfake videos to remind the viewing public that it's not easy to trust what they see on TV, especially with today's technology. A spokesperson said that they specifically made the video light-hearted and comedic to make it clear that it was a parody.
It was part of their strategy to emphasize that it's easy to spread misinformation today. Fearmongers have used Deepfake videos and fake news peddlers to create copies of well-known personalities allegedly making speeches, statements, or interviews that have been manufactured with computer-generated technology.
But it ticked viewers even more when the network aired the video about the same time as the real Queen Elizabeth's annual Christmas Day speech, which was shown on BBC and ITV. Channel 4 hired actress Debra Stephenson to spoof Her Majesty, who also delivered a speech mocking Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and Prince Andrew, as well as Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the public's fascination with toilet papers at the beginning of the lockdown.
Queen Elizabeth's deepfake video had no warning at the beginning of its broadcast. But Stephenson did appear in the end as she was seated before a green screen with several face-mapping devices attached to her.
In an interview with Daily Mail, Stephenson said that she has an "intense fascination" for this technology and was thrilled, as well as terrified, to be asked to play the Queen. Stephenson was also shown dancing in a goofy manner in the video as Her Majesty.
Buckingham Palace has not commented on the stunt by Channel 4. Meanwhile, the media watchdog is reportedly still considering if it must take action on the network, according to the BBC.
