The video is generated by AI.
The Facebook video claims that Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamd will be dealing with a pile of US dollar memos is fake.
In this Facebook post there is a video that appears to show Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohammoud sitting behind a desk, allegedly saying, “This is Somali money and nothing can pass without passing through me.”
Similar claims were shared here.
The Somali text accompanying the video states, “Look at how Hassan Sheikh is showing off his public money.”
But is the claim authentic?
First, Pesacheck extracted frames from the clip and performed a Google reverse image search. This search did not return reliable results linking the clip to a reputable news outlet or official government source.
If you look closely at the video, you will find some artificially generated signs. The president's lips and jaw move in an unnatural, rubbery way, with words completely out of sync with the movement of his mouth. His fingers sometimes melt into a pile of money. The cash stack also appears suspicious, many of them repeat the same patterns and creases. This is a general characteristic of AI-generated images.
The audio also raises some red flags. The president's voice sounds flat and metallic, lacking a natural pause, missing the breath expected in his actual speech. Sometimes the tone doesn't match the movements of his face. This is a common indication of voice clone and lip sync operations.
To back up visual and audio analysis, Pesacheck ran the clips via Deepfake-O-Meter. One of its detectors produced 99.9% AI for both audio and visuals, and other models also returned high scores.
The video claims that the president holds “Somali money,” but the bundle shown in the clip is a US dollar note. In Somalia, the local currency is Somali shillings, featuring sects such as 1,000 and 5,000 shilling notes with distinctive designs and colours.
Pesacheck has been looking into Facebook posts and has looked into a video that claims the Somali president handles a stack of cash and controls the funds of the public, finding it to be fake.
