Recently, an old video with claims about the training of secret groups in Grand Gedeh County to rigg the ongoing elections in favor of incumbent President George Weah has resurfaced online.
It was last shared to social media by a Facebook user named Evelyn Thompson on October 14, 2023, in a post that gained nearly 400 comments.
The Facebook post was shared over 1, 200 times and the video has over 32, 000 view as of the time of publication of this report.
Our review of the nearly three minutes video found that it first surfaced online in September 2022, but has been widely spread to discredit the ongoing election process.
The Claim
In the video, there is a man who appear to be in what portrayed as a news studio making a news broadcast.
The man can be heard saying, “The international community has uncovered a very dangerous plot by President Weah to win the next election by rigging it to remain in power…”
The video claims that Grand Gedeh, a county in the Southeastern region of Liberia, is being used as the training base for the secret group.
It also claimed that ‘rank leaders in the plot are Grand Gedeh Senator Zoe Pennue and Superintendent Kai Farley.
But in the video the images of the two men are mixed, as Kai Farley’s name is placed under Senator Zoe Pennue while Kai Farley’s image is placed under the name of Zoe Pennue.
Rating Justification
Our analysis of the video also found that there is no name of institution from which the information is coming. The studio has no name neither does the news presenter seen in the video.
To further verified the video, we conducted a reverse image search. Our search found a September 17, 2022 article from Africa Press. The article quotes Liberia Minister of Justice Frank Musa Dean as describing the video as malicious.
“Government is committed to free, transparent and democratic elections. The fact that no news outlet is named in the video speaks volumes,” the article quotes the Minister.
Further search also found a September 21, 2022 news article published by the New Republic newspaper wherein the Grand Gedeh County Legislative caucus described the video as “gross evil”.
In the article, the County Legislative Caucus termed the video and the claims therein as “gross evil meant to taint the image of the county”.
We also scan the video through Deepware – a software used to detect deepfake video that are created using artificial intelligence. Results from the video scanning shows that the percentage of deepfakes detected in video is 98%.
This means that the chances of the video being a deepfake created with the help of artificial intelligence is almost 100%.
Conclusion
Based on these facts, we therefore conclude that the viral video that President Weah is training a secret group in Grand Gedeh County to rig the elections in his favor is fake.
Our verification of the video shows that it first surfaced online in September 2022 and has been debunked and termed as a fake and malicious content created with the aid of artificial intelligence.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.
Thanks for the hardwork. Our country looks up to you for clarity.