African leader fooled by fake report of French ‘coup’
The AI generated video was viewed more than 16 million times before the author removed it himself after backlash from France
French President Emanuel Macron has revealed that he was contacted last weekend by an African president worried about a coup d’état in France after seeing the viral video on Facebook.
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The video, which featured a fictional journalist in Paris talking about a “coup d’état led by a colonel whose identity has not been revealed”, was highlighted by Macron in a question-and-answer session with readers of the regional newspaper La Provence in Marseille on Tuesday.
Macron accused Facebook of undermining democracy by refusing to delete the clip, made with the help of AI by a 17-year-old boy from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.
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The French president said that an African leader, who he did not name, sent him a Facebook message saying: “My dear president. What’s happening in your country? I’m very worried.”
Macron said that his officials had asked Facebook to remove the video. He added: “Facebook’s answer — ‘It doesn’t contravene our rules’. Refusal to withdraw.”
Macron said he then decided to call the platform himself, thinking: “I have more means of applying pressure than anyone else … but it didn’t work.”
The teenage creator, reportedly known as Rachid, said he had simply wanted to show off his tech skills.
His Facebook account, called Islam, features several videos made with AI, including one on the failed coup d’état in Benin — a real event that occurred this month.
He later said he had removed the video after Macron’s outburst. “I respect institutions, peoples and authorities and I promise to produce only respectful content from now on,” he told the French publication Le Monde.