In Summary: A viral video claiming that former Liberian President George Weah has launched a mobile app to change the living conditions of Liberians is making rounds on social media. We have fact-checked the video and found that it is a deepfake.
Recently, a video surfaced online with claims that former President George Weah has launched a mobile app to change the living conditions of Liberians. The video is made of short clips of different events including a clip of President Weah. It is as though former ELBC newscaster Zoquay Konneh is presenting a news story about the purported app.
We also found that the video has been duplicated with different presenters. In another video with the same information, ELBC Deputy Director Hassan Kiawu is seen presenting news about the purported mobile app.
The Claim
Video Claim: “Former President and football legend George Weah has launched the official mobile application that allows Liberians to improve their standards of living”.
Rating Justifications
To fact-check this claim, we searched the official Facebook account of George Weah and found no information about any mobile app being launched to change the living standards of Liberians.
One of the presenters in the video, Ms. Zoquay Konneh issued a public disclaimer, stating that the clip of her was taken from a past “news presentation on LNTV in 2020.”
At the top right corner of the video, there is a watermark of The New Humanitarian logo.
The New Humanitarian is a not-for-profit newsroom created in 1995 by the UN in the wake of the Rwandan genocide to produce fact-based journalism from the heart of conflicts and disaster regions.
Further search of the account that posted the video shows that the page was created on March 9, and Meta Ads Library also shows that the account has launched 13 ads on the same topic between July 4 and 10th. Our search found that the primary location of the person managing the page is Spain.
Also, we scan the video to detect if it is deepfake by using an online tool called Deepware.ai and the results show that the chances of the video being fake are 100%.
We also verified the app by running a scan on the app link using Whois.Com.The scan results show that the app domain was registered on June 26, 2024, by an organization named Super Privacy Service LTD based in California, United States.
Conclusion
Based on the evidence we have gathered; we conclude that the viral video about former President Weah launching a mobile app to change the living conditions of Liberians is fake. Results from an analysis of the video using an online tool established that the video is a deep fake.
This report is produced with funding from the USAID Media Activity. The funder has No say in the editorial decisions leading to the production of this content
