FACT CHECK: BBC Journalist Spreads Misinformation, Claims That Ibrahim Traoré Speech Addressing Security Volunteers is “Fake AI Video”

Collins Nabiswa, a Kenyan journalist working for ‘BBC Monitoring’ and ‘BBC Disinformation’ has falsely claimed that a speech by Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traoré, which is being circulated online is a “fake AI video.” Readily available video evidence confirms that the speech did in fact, take place in Ouagadougou on May 23, 2024.

Nabiswa alleged the video circulating on social media, in which Traoré directly addresses an audience of Burkina Faso’s Volontaires pour la Défense de la Patrie, (VDP), is AI-generated and “fake.” He went further to accuse the Burkinabé government of paying social media influencers to “peddle propaganda” using AI-generated content.

Multiple independent sources, including an easily accessible full-length recording of the original speech posted on the YouTube channel of local TV station BF1 Télévision, directly contradict Nabiswa’s assertions. The footage clearly shows President Traoré speaking to hundreds of VDP members in an address where he called for a single-minded focus on national security objectives and unity in the fight against insurgency.

While the video making the rounds on social media was translated from French to English using an AI translation and voice-matching tool for the benefit of English-speaking audiences, the content and context of the speech remain intact and easily verifiable.

Despite being called out by several social media users who pointed him to the original French-language video on YouTube, Nabiswa doubled down on his claim that the video was “fake.” Incredibly, he went on to falsely claim that Traoré made “no such speech either in French or in any other local language” – a claim that is demonstrably false as well as completely impossible for a journalist to substantiate.

Nabiswa doubles down on his false claim

Nabiswa’s false claim illustrates a worrying behavioural pattern among Western media outlets and the journalists they employ. These platforms and their state-funded “fact-checking” extensions regularly use the reach and status afforded to them by generous state funding to weaponise terms like “propaganda,” “disinformation,” and “misinformation” –  while themselves being the biggest vectors of disinformation, misinformation, malinformation and other forms of state propaganda. In addition to serving the geopolitical goals of the Western states they are affiliated with, this is also done to discredit legitimate information, particularly from non-Western sources.

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Oluwasegun Sanusi

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