Description: A manipulated image allegedly showing Burkina Faso junta leader Ibrahim Traoré with a wife and three children circulated widely on social media. Investigations by GhanaFact and others concluded the image was altered using AI tools, merging Traoré's likeness from a 2023 Russia-Africa summit photo with fabricated figures. The harm stems from the spread of false personal information about a political figure, potentially shaping public perception through synthetic, misleading media.
Editor Notes: These images reportedly circulated across social media beginning in late April 2025 and into May 2025. This incident is part of a cluster of reported deepfake videos circulated online to promote Ibrahim Traoré’s leadership, all of which are seemingly contributing to a wider disinformation campaign linked to pro-junta sentiment. The cluster seems to have arisen in March 2025 and continued through to at least the end of May 2025. See also Incident 1091 for a 2023 deepfake incident involving similar themes.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown deepfake technology developer developed an AI system deployed by Unknown actors and Pro-Traoré information ecosystem, which harmed Truth and General public of Burkina Faso.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown deepfake technology and Social media
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1093
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2025-04-26
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
Claim: Family photo shows Burkinabe junta leader Ibrahim Traoré with wife and three children
Source: Social media
Verdict: Manipulated content, Fake
Researched by Alfa Shaban
The popularity of Ibrahim Traoré, the Burkinabe junta leader, ha…
Variants
A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.