AI-generated deepfake music videos depict celebrities praising Burkina Faso's Traoré
Deepfake music videos depicting numerous celebrities praising Burkina Faso's president Ibrahim Traoré were distributed across social media platforms. The AI-generated videos showed poor quality indicators and were labeled as synthetic content on YouTube, yet some influencers reportedly shared them despite their false nature.
What happened
At least fifteen different versions of a song called 'God Protect Ibrahim Traoré' were created using deepfake technology to show celebrities including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Eminem, R. Kelly and Selena Gomez appearing to sing praise for Burkina Faso's president. The videos were uploaded to YouTube, Facebook and TikTok and display poor quality characteristics of AI-generated content including deformed faces, illegible text on banners, and video-game-like appearance.
In one deepfake featuring Rihanna, she appears to call for 'five more years of soldier's rule' in support of Traoré's military junta. Hundreds of comments in English beneath the videos express support for Traoré, reportedly from users claiming to be from various African countries including Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Malawi.
Reported impact
English-speaking influencers, including Ghanaian influencer Nancy Blaq with 2.7 million followers, shared the deepfake videos despite their false nature, potentially spreading the content to wider audiences.
Index analysis
YouTube labelled the videos as 'altered or synthetic content', indicating they are AI-generated. The deepfakes display common technical flaws of synthetic media including facial deformations and inability to render legible text.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.