WATCH: Viral ‘Deepfake’ Shows Hillary Clinton as Hannibal Lecter

A “deepfake” video depicting Hillary Clinton as iconic movie villain Hannibal Lecter went viral this week.

The Drudge Report linked to the video, which has racked up tens of thousands of views on YouTube, on Tuesday.

`In it, the former secretary of state’s face is superimposed on the body of actor Anthony Hopkins, who portrayed the cannibalistic Lecter in 1991’s “Silence of the Lambs.”

Technology experts have raised concerns about the potential threat posed by increasingly sophisticated deepfakes and other forms of manipulated media.

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In March, Twitter rolled out a new policy, which labels tweets with altered or synthetic media.

The same month, Twitter used its new “manipulated media” label for the first time on a video clip of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that was retweeted by President Donald Trump.

Social media companies have faced pressure to police misleading or false information on their platforms ahead of the presidential election in November.

Nick Cohen, Global Head of Product for Core News Services at Reuters, said last year that manipulated footage “of all different sorts is a growing area of concern.”

“There is just a lot more media out there. So, the opportunity for people to put things out of context or go one step further and manipulate that media – whether that’s for nefarious ends or innocently – can have a real impact,” Cohen said.

“And we have to be alive to that. So more and more, a core part of what we have to do is understand that material is being circulated online, through social media, and making sure we can tell truth from fiction.”

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(Reuters contributed to this report.)

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