Misleading AI content spreads in the wake of Maduro’s removal

Following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the removal of its leader, Nicolas Maduro, AI-generated videos purporting to show Venezuelan citizens celebrating in the streets have gone viral on social media.

These artificial intelligence clips, depicting rejoicing crowds, have amassed millions of views across major platforms like TikTok, Instagram and X. 

One of the earliest and most widely shared clips on X was posted by an account named “Wall Street Apes,” which has over 1 million followers on the platform. 

The post depicts a series of Venezuelan citizens crying tears of joy and thanking the U.S. and President Donald Trump for removing Maduro. 

The video has since been flagged by a community note, a crowdsourced fact-checking feature on X that allows users to add context to posts they believe are misleading. The note read: “This video is AI generated and is currently being presented as a factual statement intended to mislead people.”

The clip has been viewed over 5.6 million times and reshared by at least 38,000 accounts, including by business mogul Elon Musk, before he eventually removed the repost. 

CNBC was unable to confirm the origin of the video, though fact-checkers at BBC and AFP said the earliest known version of the clip appeared on the TikTok account @curiousmindusa, which regularly posts AI-generated content.

Even before such videos appeared, AI-generated images showing Maduro in U.S. custody were circulating prior to the Trump administration releasing an authentic image of the captured leader.

The deposed Venezuelan president was captured on Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. forces conducted airstrikes and a ground raid, an operation that has dominated global headlines at the start of the new year.

Along with the AI-generated videos, the AFP’s fact-check team also flagged a number of examples of misleading content concerning Maduro’s ousting, including footage of celebrations in Chile falsely presented as scenes from Venezuela. 

Trump has also reposted several videos related to Venezuelan celebrations on Truth Social this week, though CNBC confirmed many of those were also filmed outside Venezuela, in cities such as Panama City and Buenos Aires.

One of the videos reshared by the president included old footage that first appeared online as early as July 2024 and was thus not related to the recent removal of Maduro.

The dissemination of that type of misinformation surrounding major news events is not new. Similar false or misleading content has been spread during the Israel-Palestine and Russia-Ukraine conflicts.

However, the massive reach of AI-generated content related to recent developments in Venezuela is a stark example of AI’s growing role as a tool for misinformation.

Platforms such as Sora and Midjourney have made it easier than ever to quickly generate hyper-realistic video and pass it off as genuine in the chaos of fast-breaking events. The creators of that content often seek to amplify certain political narratives or sow confusion among global audiences.

Last year, AI-generated videos of women complaining about losing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits during a government shutdown also went viral. One such AI-generated video fooled Fox News, which presented it as real in an article that was later removed.

In light of these trends, social media companies have faced growing pressure to step up efforts to label potentially misleading AI content.

Last year, India’s government proposed a law requiring such labeling, while Spain approved fines of up to 35 million euros for unlabeled AI materials.

In addressing these concerns, major platforms, including TikTok and Meta, have rolled out AI detection and labeling tools, though the results appear mixed.

CNBC was able to identify some misleading TikTok videos on Venezuela that had been labeled as AI-generated, but others that appeared to be fabricated or digitally altered did not yet have warnings.

In the case of X, the platform has relied mostly on community notes for content labeling, though critics say the system often reacts too slowly to prevent AI misinformation from spreading before being identified.

Adam Mosseri, who oversees Instagram and Threads, acknowledged the challenge facing social media in a recent post. “All the major platforms will do good work identifying AI content, but they will get worse at it over time as AI gets better at imitating reality,” he said.

“There is already a growing number of people who believe, as I do, that it will be more practical to fingerprint real media than fake media,” he added. 

— CNBC’s Victoria Yeo contributed to this report