AFP Fact Check

🇿🇦 After South Africa ordered refugee offices to resume processing asylum applications, false claims spread online, including AI fakes targeting the Democratic Alliance and Home Affairs. Read more: u.afp.com/AsylumSA

As Myanmar migrants rallied against Min Aung Hlaing's trip to Malaysia in October, social media posts falsely shared an old video as footage of the gathering. We traced the clip to a cost-of-living protest in Kuala Lumpur in 2025. u.afp.com/SyoZ

🇺🇸🗳️ Three widely shared videos of voting machines acting up are unrelated to the 2026 US midterms. The clips date back to 2014, 2018 and 2019 and show election technology no longer in use in Mississippi, Virginia or Indiana.

A protest against a revision of India's electoral rolls was planned in New Delhi on October 10, but thwarted by a police crackdown. Two videos shared with claims they showed the protests were old and filmed far from the Indian capital. ✍️ Sachin Baghel 💻️ Natalie Handel 🎶 AudioNetwork

Following hardline monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara's appearance in court wearing a prison uniform, social media users falsely circulated an old image purportedly showing him without his robes in Japan. But we found the man in the picture is not Gnanasara. u.afp.com/Sy3b

As unrest followed France's recent student-led protests, social media posts shared an old video falsely claiming demonstrators carried only Palestinian flags. But we found the clip was filmed during a pro-Palestinian rally in Paris from 2025. u.afp.com/SyZN

🇺🇸🗳️ Misinformation targets Maricopa County ahead of 2026 midterms. Read more: u.afp.com/SykL

Amid riots that followed France's October 2026 cost-of-living protests, social media users recirculated an old interview falsely linked to the demonstrations. We found the footage was taken from a 2017 DW interview and is unrelated to the recent unrest. u.afp.com/SCtA

🇺🇸🗳️ Cook County, Illinois targeted with unsubstantiated claims of 'rigged' voting machines. Read more: u.afp.com/Syku

Russian disinformation targets James Talarico with unfounded sexual assault claim. Read more: u.afp.com/SCCp

Despite stubbornly high crime rates in South Africa, claims that a video showing a foiled business robbery caught on CCTV in the country are false. The dramatic incident took place at a bakery in Mexico in 2023 u.afp.com/SCjJ

🗳️ Albertans roundly rejected a future binding independence referendum. Far more ballots were cast on that issue than the other nine immigration and constitutional questions put to voters, but contrary to claims online, this is not evidence of election fraud. Read more: u.afp.com/SCKG

⚠️ Beware of fabricated graphics that appear to show Angus Reid projecting high support for Alberta separation. The polling firm never published any data corresponding to this image. Read more: u.afp.com/SCzr

🇨🇦 The deadly fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright remains under investigation, but this clip of a massive explosion is unrelated. It was first published in August in connection to a blast at an arms factory outside Rome.

🌀 Hurricane season: be careful of AI slop weather maps on social media

The run-up to a referendum in Canada's Alberta province on a future independence vote has been clouded by US political influence and AI-manipulated online content, leaving experts concerned that the results will be contested no matter the outcome. Read more: u.afp.com/SChF

Supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan rallied in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in October 2026, but a video purportedly showing protesters setting a building ablaze actually shows protests in Nepal in 2025. u.afp.com/SCWr

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court reinstated a prison sentence for hardline monk Gnanasara, prompting protests by his supporters. But this circulating image purportedly showing monks marching in protest was generated using AI. u.afp.com/SCsy

Claims that a Cleveland Clinic study found the risk of contracting influenza increases after getting the shot misrepresent the findings of a paper which has yet to be peer-reviewed.

Wildfires in Indonesia have shrouded parts of the region in toxic haze, but satellite imagery and Malaysian authorities indicate a circulating map exaggerates the scale of the fires. We also found it was generated with AI. u.afp.com/SCQW

No human-made technology is capable of creating or redirecting hurricanes. Despite their near-simultaneous development, meteorologists say tropical systems Isaias, Rachel and Simon resulted from natural weather conditions.

🇪🇹 Old clips of Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed are being misrepresented as recent visits to Tigray amid the latest conflict. One was filmed in Amhara in 2021, the other at a cultural event in Addis Ababa in 2019. Both were edited to remove key context. Read more: u.afp.com/AbiyMekelle

🗳️ Recycled misleading claims stoke election concerns ahead of Alberta referendum. Read more: u.afp.com/SCdC

President Donald Trump attributed a quote exalting him to American actor Denzel Washington, but the purported statement is fabricated. Near-identical posts have falsely attributed the same quote to everyone from Matthew McConaughey to Pope Leo XIV.

A newspaper front page from 2006 is circulating in Nigeria, featuring what appears to be a report on presidential candidate Peter Obi revealing how he was "cured of madness". However, the original was altered by incorporating Obi's name and image u.afp.com/SCN7

Old videos purportedly showing the recent student protests in France are being shared in a false context. We found the clips were actually filmed in Paris during a 2022 protest and as PSG fans celebrated in 2026 u.afp.com/SCw6

Social media users shared a graphic with the logo of Malaysia's Election Commission claiming to announce dates for the Malacca state poll. But the new dates were fabricated, while the commission dismissed the false claim u.afp.com/SCU6

After the US Supreme Court suspended the Trump administration's proposed changes to sending materials to voters, experts told AFP mail-in ballots can be sent via the postal service or taken to a secure drop box. ✍️ Marisha Goldhamer / Cecilia Clemens Vargas Lugo 💻️ Natalie Handel 🎶 Audio Network

Meteorologist retracts AI-hallucinated map of Hurricane Isaias. Read more: u.afp.com/SCiv

🇪🇹 Amid the renewed conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region, images shared online claiming to show Ethiopian soldiers on the streets of the regional capital Mekelle are AI-generated. Read more: u.afp.com/Mekelle

Activists marched through Nairobi in September demanding the release of Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye. But videos and a photo shared as scenes from the march are from old, unrelated protests in Kenya. Read more: u.afp.com/BesigyeMarch

As student-led protests over overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages erupted across France, social media posts falsely linked this old footage to the clashes. We found it was filmed during pension reform demonstrations in January 2023. u.afp.com/SCo5

Russia has not confirmed if a woman employed at a plague research institute died from the disease. But on social media, influencers are using concerns about the plague to push the necessity of purchasing a $300 kit claimed to help people avoid emergency room visits. Read more: u.afp.com/SC3D

🏒 Canada's public broadcaster lost longstanding rights to air National Hockey League games, but the Saturday night program now airing will not only show cricket. It will feature multiple sports including the Professional Women's Hockey League.

Danish researcher Poul Thorsen pleaded guilty to stealing grant money for autism research, but social media posts claiming the admission invalidates a 2002 paper he co-authored showing no link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism are incorrect. Read more: u.afp.com/S9uF

What a person eats -- particularly the frequency of sugary food and drinks -- plays a role in tooth decay, but it is not possible to "heal" a cavity through diet changes alone as claimed by some on social media. Read more: u.afp.com/S9uC

"Stealing our water": conspiracy theories about billionaires follow droughts. Read more: u.afp.com/S9ut

A video purportedly showing Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed addressing the renewed conflict in Tigray is misleading. It is an edited clip from a November 2020 speech, delivered at the start of the first Tigray war. Read more: u.afp.com/AbiySpeech

A fake "Times of India" front page claims to show Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed in an awkward greeting with India’s Narendra Modi at the BRICS summit in New Delhi. The entire front page is AI-generated. Read more: u.afp.com/BRICS

US Senator flubs facts in accusing former prosecutor of perjury. Read more: u.afp.com/S9uv

🇪🇹 A video shared online purports to show Donald Trump urging peace in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region. But while the footage is real and shows Trump discussing his first job, the audio is AI-generated. Read more: u.afp.com/TrumpEthiopia

Facebook posts have shared a video claiming it shows the Somali coast drying up amid Ethiopia's push for Red Sea port access. But the footage was filmed at the Alang shipbreaking yard in Gujarat, India. Read more: u.afp.com/SomaliaCoast

🇺🇬 False claims have spread online since the death of King Oyo of Uganda’s Tooro Kingdom. A fabricated statement was presented as his last message, while old videos were recycled to falsely depict his final hours and the return of his body from the US. Read more: u.afp.com/KingOyo

As severe flooding inundated parts of Bangkok in late September, a video purportedly showing a long-tail boat cruising down a submerged city street circulated on social media. Although rescuers had to resort to inflatables and small boats, AFP found the footage was generated using AI. u.afp.com/S9sU

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian showed photos of children killed in the early stages of the Iran war during his defiant speech at the UN General Assembly. But this image circulating online is AI-generated, and replaced the children's photo with synthetic visuals u.afp.com/AIPezeshkian...

An image shared by supporters of Australia Senator Pauline Hanson supposedly shows her working in her fish-and-chips shop in the late 1980s. But the “vintage” photo is in fact AI-generated. u.afp.com/S9q8

There is no evidence vaccination ingredients are triggering allergies to peanuts. Research shows peanut allergies develop less often when the nut is introduced early to a child's diet.

Vaccines are sterilized to eliminate risk of parasites. Read more: u.afp.com/S947

Donald Trump shared an image of Xi Jinping's red-carpet arrival to Washington that appears to have been altered using artificial intelligence, with an unflattering expression captured in live footage of the moment edited out. Read more: u.afp.com/S9Gp

🇺🇸📨 🗳️ Misleading warnings over mail-in ballots circulate ahead of US midterms. Read more: u.afp.com/S9SQ