Just minutes after Donald Trump announced a “massive attack” against Venezuela on Saturday morning, false and misleading AI-generated images began flooding social media. The fake photos of Nicolás Maduro being taken off a plane by US law enforcement agents, the images of Venezuelans jubilant in the streets of Caracas, and the video of missiles raining down on the city – all were fake.
The fabricated material is mixed with real videos and photographs of US planes flying over the Venezuelan capital and explosions lighting up the dark sky. The lack of verified information about the raid, as well as the fast-moving capabilities of AI tools, made it difficult to discern fact from fiction about the incursion on Caracas.
until trump posted a Verified photo Fake photos of Maduro, blindfolded, handcuffed and wearing gray sweatpants, posing with US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents on the USS Iwo Jima warship had already gone viral. According to fact-checking site NewsGuard, the AI photos have been viewed and shared millions of times on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
Vince Lago, Mayor of Coral Gables, Florida, posted fake photo Maduro took to Instagram after DEA agents said the Venezuelan president is “the leader of a narco-terrorist organization that threatens our country”. Lagoo’s post received over 1500 likes and is still counting at the time of writing this article.
Tools to detect manipulated content, such as reverse image search and AI-detecting sites, can help Evaluate whether online images are accurateBut they are inconsistent. Sophia Rubinson, a senior editor who studies misinformation and conspiracy theories for NewsGuard, told the Guardian that the fake images of Caracas are too similar to the real events, making it even more difficult to discern what is real.
“Many of the AI-generated and out-of-context visuals that currently dominate social media do not significantly distort the facts on the ground,” Rubinson said. “Still, AI-generated fabrications and dramatic, out-of-context footage are being used to fill gaps in real-time reporting and represent another tactic in the misinformation wars – and it is harder for fact checkers to uncover because the visuals often approximate reality.”
newsguard issued a report On Monday afternoon, five fabricated and out-of-context images, as well as two videos of military operations in Venezuela, were identified. An AI-generated photo shows a soldier posing next to Maduro, with a black hood over his head. A video taken out of context shows a US Special Forces helicopter landing at an alleged Venezuelan military site – the actual footage was taken at Fort Bragg Army base in North Carolina in June.
NewsGuard said the seven misleading photos and videos it identified have now been viewed more than 14 million times on X alone.
Other footage of previous incidents is also being circulated online and broadcast as part of the Saturday strike. Far-right influencer and Trump confidant Laura Loomer posted footage of a poster of the Venezuelan president on Twitter, saying “Venezuelan people are tearing down posters of Maduro”. According to Wired, The footage is from 2024Loomer has since removed the post,
Another right-wing influencer and conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, posted an aerial video on Twitter of thousands of people cheering in Caracas. “Millions of Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas and other major cities to celebrate the ouster of communist dictator Nicolas Maduro from power,” Jones wrote. “Now we need to see that same kind of energy on the homefront!”
The video, which is still live, has been viewed more than 2.2 million times. Comments on the post on X’s crowdsourced moderation tool, Community Notes, say the video is “at least 18 months old.” Reverse image search of the video shows that the footage is actually from a protest in Caracas in July 2024 following Maduro’s disputed presidential victory.
The platform’s AI chatbot Grok also disputed the timeline of Jones’ video, saying: “Current sources show no such celebrations in Caracas today, but instead pro-Maduro gatherings.”
Meta, X and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.
