Popular YouTuber Classify revealed that he was behind the fake viral Amber Heard ‘mega-pint’ photo and how he did it.
With advances in technology, deepfakes and photoshops can trick even the wariest of internet sleuths, just as YouTuber Classify revealed with a recent viral photo of an Amber Heard lookalike.
Hot off her public and messy court case versus former husband Johnny Depp, Amber Heard has been a hot topic for celebrity gossip recently. As a result, photos of her following the trial have been shared and scrutinized wildly.
In the case of a recent photo that went viral, though, it turns out that Amber Heard wasn’t in the picture at all.
How did Classify fake the Amber Heard picture?
YouTuber Classify explains how he faked this photo of Amber Heard.
After the defamation suit between Heard and Depp was concluded, pictures of Heard – who was ordered to pay $15 million – were all over the internet.
This gave YouTuber Classify the idea to find an Amber Heard imposter and pose her for a viral photo.
Classify began by scouring Instagram for a stand-in who looked like Amber Heard, eventually choosing actress Kseniia Dubovitz. Classify flew her to Los Angeles and gave her a complete makeover with clothes and makeup that Heard herself was known to wear.
The disguise was apparently so convincing that a TMZ bus, which was passing by just as Classify was taking the soon-to-be viral pictures, had people calling the model “Amber” – and even rapper Bobby Shmurda came by to take a photo (though it’s not clear if he actually thought this was Heard or knew it was an impostor).
How did Classify make the photo go viral?
Once they secured the photos, Classify enlisted his friend FaZeBlaze to post the photo, claiming that he had seen the real Amber Heard while at brunch.
After posting, the photo immediately began to get retweeted on Twitter, with onlookers appearing to believe that this was Heard. The attention ramped up even further when influencer Keemstar retweeted the photo to his 2.7 million followers.
By the time the video was over Classify revealed that the photo had over 150,000 likes on Twitter and was being made into TikToks (though it, unfortunately, hadn’t blown up on Reddit as well).
After showing how easy it was to fool the internet, though, Classify wasn’t sure whether it was worth it. FaZe Blaze also mused about how troubling it was that no one fact-checked or researched the veracity of the picture.