Disinformation Surges on Social Media Following Nicolás Maduro’s Arrest

Just minutes after Donald Trump declared early Saturday that US troops had detained Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, a wave of disinformation regarding the event surged across social media.

Many users shared outdated videos on different platforms, incorrectly asserting they depicted the assaults in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. On TikTok, Instagram, and X, individuals circulated AI-created images and videos purporting to show US Drug Enforcement Administration agents and various law enforcement officials apprehending Maduro.

In recent times, significant global events have sparked substantial disinformation on social media, especially as tech companies have scaled back their moderation efforts. Several accounts have exploited these relaxed policies to increase engagement and attract followers.

“The United States of America has successfully executed a large-scale operation against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who, along with his wife, has been captured and removed from the Country,” Trump stated in a Truth Social post early Saturday.

Shortly thereafter, US attorney general Pam Bondi announced that Maduro and his wife were indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess these weapons.

“They will soon face the full force of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi posted on X.

Minutes following the news of Maduro’s apprehension, an image claiming to depict two DEA agents alongside the Venezuelan president circulated widely across various platforms.

However, utilizing SynthID—a technology by Google DeepMind designed to identify AI-generated images—WIRED confirmed it was likely fabricated.

“Based on my analysis, the majority or entirety of this image was either generated or modified using Google AI,” Google’s Gemini chatbot indicated after examining the image in question. “I detected a SynthID watermark, which is an invisible digital marker embedded by Google’s AI tools during creation or editing. This technology remains detectable even after images are altered, such as through cropping or compression.” The false image was first highlighted by fact-checker David Puente.

While X’s AI chatbot Grok also verified that the image was not authentic when queried by various users, it inaccurately claimed that the image was an edited version of the arrest of Mexican drug lord Dámaso López Núñez back in 2017.