An AI-generated image shows French President Emmanuel Macron in police custody. Accessed December 17, 2025. (Photo via X)
December 17, 2025 11:01 PM GMT+03:00
aAn AI-generated video falsely depicting a military coup in France has proven convincing enough to prompt African heads of state to contact President Emmanuel Macron for an explanation about the fabricated crisis.
The deepfake video, which racked up 13 million views on Facebook in the second week of December, was presented as a breaking news story from a fictitious French television channel called Live 24. A computer-generated reporter announced that Macron and his government had been overthrown by an anonymous colonel, with background visuals showing the Eiffel Tower lit up, flashing police lights, a hovering helicopter and armed soldiers monitoring the crowd behind a police cordon.
“One of my African counterparts sent me a message: 'Dear Mr President, what is happening in your country?'” Mr Macron told local newspaper La Provence in Marseille during his visit on Tuesday.
The French president admitted that his initial amusement at the clearly fabricated content quickly turned to frustration when his team encountered Meta's resistance when removing the video.
Meta rejects initial removal request
Macron's team reported the video to Facebook's parent company Meta on December 14, but the platform initially refused to remove the content, saying it did not violate its usage rules. The video remained accessible for several days, with only a small warning label: “This content may be digitally created or modified to appear authentic.”
“These people are making a mockery of us. They have no interest in keeping public debate healthy, they are making a mockery of democratic sovereignty and they are putting us at risk,” Macron said in Marseille, pointing the finger at big tech companies.
The French leader suggested that even his position did not have enough influence over the tech giant. “I tend to think that I have more influence than other people, but…well, that doesn't work. As you can see, we are not well equipped,” he said.
The video, uploaded by a user going by the alias “ISLAM,” finally disappeared from the platform on Wednesday morning, three days after Macron first noticed its existence.
Patterns of AI-generated disinformation targeting France
The December incident marks at least the second AI-generated coup video targeting France within the same month. In early December, another fake video purporting to be from RFI, France's international radio broadcaster and sister station of France 24, raised similar allegations of a coup. The video was also posted by the username “ISLAM” and received 3 million views before being deleted.
The incident comes amid broader changes to social media's content moderation policies. In January 2025, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be removing most fact-checking mechanisms from its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
“We're going to get rid of fact checkers who are too politically biased and who have destroyed more trust than they've built, especially in the United States,” Zuckerberg said in announcing the policy change, a move widely interpreted as bowing to pressure from President-elect Donald Trump.
December 17, 2025 11:04 PM GMT+03:00
