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Viral Image of Nicolás Maduro Being Led Away From Plane Isn’t Real

Experts identified an AI-generated image falsely showing Nicolás Maduro in US custody, with a Google SynthID watermark confirming digital fabrication.

Summary by Full Fact
A widely shared picture appearing to show the Venezuelan leader in custody is fake, and was made using artificial intelligence.

6 Articles

Forged images from the arrest of Nicolás Maduro by US soldiers are available on social media. A picture can be made via the agency ddp to the editorial office of the Funke group. Where did the picture come from?

·Frankfurt, Germany
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When the news broke, Weber gave the chatbot a simple indication, cut Gemini's watermark and published the result in X about 20 minutes after President Donald Trump announced the capture on his Truth Social network.

A picture and its story: The Funke editorial office apologizes to its readers for a photo of Nicolás Maduro faked with AI and explains how it could be published. The picture shows the Venezuelan leader in handcuffs and comes from the photo agency ddp, which it had obtained from its partner Polaris. According to a note from the agency AFP, the editors removed the motif from their online offers and published a correction. ddp explains that the pho…

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Bias Distribution

  • 50% of the sources are Center, 50% of the sources lean Right
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Full Fact broke the news in on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.
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