A purported video of former US President Donald Trump asking Nigerians to vote for him in the forthcoming election is circulating on social media.
The US presidential election is set to be held in November.
In the 15-second video, Trump promised Nigerians a free visa to the US if they voted for him.
“I will be coming to Nigeria for a campaign, please Nigerians and the US I want you all to vote me,” the voice said.
“In my coming election, if you vote me, visa to the United States will be free for all Nigerians. I am begging vote me and I will remove bad governance in Nigeria. I know how to do it.”
The video was shared on August 10 by an account linked to VeryDarkMan (VDM), the controversial activist, via TikTok.
The post pinned to the activist’s profile has gathered 73.5k likes; 17.7k shares; 6696 comments; and 5010 bookmarks.
But did Trump make such a statement?
VERIFICATION
Analysing the video, TheCable observed that the VDM account posted the video 18 seconds after @Badinself, an X account user, uploaded the video.
“Donald trump is coming to Nigeria for campaign begging Nigerians should vote him,” the X user tweeted alongside a picture of Trump and former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The video only gathered 232 views and four likes.
Using Hive to verify the video’s authenticity, the results showed that the video had high traces of artificial intelligence (AI) content, and deepfake, an AI-generated technology that mimics a person’s voice to sound like another.
TheCable also observed other inconsistencies with the video and found that Trump’s lip movement was not in sync with his voice.
The former president’s face also appeared seamlessly fused with his clothing, as if skin and fabric were one, yet his figure moved fluidly and independently, creating an uncanny effect.
The figure also blinked inconsistently between unnecessary and untimely pauses while speaking with a blurred background.
A scan of @Badinself’s X account, the original post sharer, showed that the social media user joined the platform in January and has consistently shared AI-generated videos with false captions.
For example, during President Bola Tinubu’s recent trip to China, the account posted a video of US President Joe Biden purportedly warning Nigerians to be cautious.
“Tinubu’s visit to China might involve selling their oil to settle Nigeria’s debt with China,” Biden allegedly said.
TheCable found the video to be manipulated using Deepware, an open-source technology primarily dedicated to detecting AI-generated videos.
In addition, TikTok also confirmed that the video shared by the VDM account was AI-generated.
A keyword search of VDM on the social media platform returned over 20 accounts, a network that often reposts misleading videos with high engagement.
VERDICT
The video of Trump asking Nigerians to vote for him in the upcoming US elections is AI-generated and therefore, not authentic. The only grounds for US presidential candidates to campaign internationally are to engage with US citizens living abroad, especially if expatriates can vote from their locations. Involving foreign nationals outside the country in the voting process is not permissible.
