Right-wing influencers amplified a fabricated statement attributed to the Islamic State group in an effort to link New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to the extremist organization after his victory in the US financial capital’s highly anticipated election. Independent experts and terrorism-monitoring organizations told AFP the fake had not appeared on official IS channels and did not resemble the group’s authentic communications.
Society
Saudi Arabia, the host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup, has unveiled plans to build a football arena on top of a real estate complex in a futuristic new megacity project, but an image purported to depict the Gulf nation’s plan to construct the world’s first “sky stadium” was made with AI. The creator of the visual that went massively viral in late October and even duped media outlets told AFP it is AI-generated, while a source told AFP the “sky stadium” design is “completely fabricated”.
Posts about allegedly exploding electric cars have been circulating on social media for a long time. However, the footage usually shows cars with combustion engines that the authors of such manipulations misleadingly label as electric vehicles. According to available data, electric cars are in fact safer in this regard, as fires and explosions occur far less frequently. What do these viral posts look like, and how widespread is the narrative about exploding electric cars? We describe this phenomenon in our prebunking article.
One day after thieves robbed France’s Louvre Museum of prize jewels in a brazen daytime heist, a short video purporting to show the crime from the Apollo Gallery spread in multiple languages across social media. But the sequence was generated by artificial intelligence, AFP verified.
Scientists do not fully understand what causes the chronic neurodegenerative disease Alzheimer’s, but they are examining a combination of genetic, health and lifestyle factors. On social media, false claims blaming statins — medicines that help lower cholesterol levels — are spreading despite research showing that a sustained reduction in “bad” cholesterol can actually help lower the risk of dementia.
In September 2025, the Russian Federal Medical and Biological Agency announced that its mRNA-based vaccine Enteromix had passed preclinical trials with promising results. Following this announcement, posts spread on social media in Africa claiming Enteromix was a “cure” for cancer. The posts also claimed the vaccine was ready for general use and would be available for free. However, oncology vaccine specialists poured cold water on the claims, saying reliable clinical evidence for Enteromix is not yet available. The Russian agency itself stated the vaccine is awaiting approval for the next stage.
US President Donald Trump falsely claimed Amish people living in the United States “have essentially no autism” during a White House announcement billed as offering findings on causes and treatments for the neurological and developmental disorder. Experts said he is misguided; autism does exist in the traditionalist Christian communities, which are known for rejecting modern technologies.
After protesters took to the streets in Paris in a show of grassroots opposition to President Emmanuel Macron and planned austerity measures, an old video resurfaced in posts falsely claiming it showed the demonstrations in the French capital. The footage was in fact filmed in Poland’s capital Warsaw and previously circulated in a post about an independence day rally in the city in November 2017.
An image circulating widely online appears to show Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah resident accused of shooting dead US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, wearing a T-shirt supportive of President Donald Trump. But the photo is altered; the original, lifted from Robinson’s mother’s since-deactivated Facebook page, showed the suspect in a plain top.
AI-generated images of a flattened neighbourhood have been falsely shared online as genuine after a deadly earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan’s mountainous region in August and killed over 2,200 people. The visuals bore errors that indicate they are inauthentic.