In 2020, researchers estimated that 60,000 sex workers were working in Ghana. The government has banned solicitations, but a video purportedly showing a woman sitting in a glass display case was shared on social media across Africa as evidence of the capital Accra’s red-light district. However, this video was created using artificial intelligence.
“Who can tell me what these women are doing in the show glasses?” reads the caption of a video posted to X by an account with more than 139,000 followers.
The video, which shows a young woman sitting in a glass box illuminated by red lights, has been reposted more than 100 times since it was released on February 1, 2026.
Text overlaid on the video reads “Accra” and includes the Ghanaian flag.
Screenshot of incorrect X post taken on February 16, 2027. AI symbol added by AFP.
Scrolling through the comments reveals that some people seem to believe the video is real and shows real sex workers in Ghana’s capital.
One user commented: “Giving you the red light district of Amsterdam (sic).”
“Prostitutes. Displayed for customers to choose from in show glasses (sic),” wrote another.
AFP Fact Check debunked this claim in French, and several related posts received thousands of likes (here and here).
However, the video is not real. An AFP correspondent in Ghana also confirmed that the venue depicted in the video does not exist anywhere in the West African country.
deformed hands and feet
A closer look at the video reveals visual contradictions to the purported bodies of sex workers.
One of the women at 0:03 in the clip has four legs, one wearing pink sandals and the other barefoot.
The next woman appears to have three legs, one of which is partially covered by her clothing.
At 0:08, another woman appears to have three arms, with the right arm extending to her ankle. The hand of the outstretched arm is also deformed, and the fingers are indeterminate.
Screenshot showing limb abnormalities in the video. AI symbol added by AFP.
These visual anomalies, such as extra limbs or distorted body parts, are common in AI-generated images, as AI tools still struggle to accurately render human features.
Analysis of this video using an AI detector supports this conclusion.
InVID-WeVerify (co-created by AFP) and Hive Moderation returned a 60 percent and 98 percent probability that the video was generated using AI, respectively.
Screenshot of video analysis results by Hive Moderation, taken on February 10, 2026. AI symbols were added by AFP.
The video also includes a watermark from the TikTok account “@king.arthi” and was published on January 26, 2025, and has since been shared more than 20,000 times.
“Red light district? No, Accra just looks and feels good (sic),” the caption reads in part, and also includes a disclaimer about TikTok’s AI.
Screenshot taken on February 19, 2026 showing the original AI-generated clip posted to TikTok. AI symbol added by AFP.
The Romania-based account owner clearly states in his bio that his content is generated by AI and that he sells AI content creation training courses.
“Create cinematic AI content like I do,” it says, directing users to the website.
The account has other similar clips of women allegedly prostituted in glass shop windows in various cities including Berlin, Jakarta, Munich, Bali and Chongqing. They all exhibit the same abnormalities seen in the video in question, especially noticeable in the fingers.
Screenshot of a similar video posted by a TikTok account, taken on February 10, 2026. Red boxes added by AFP.
One of the AI-generated videos claims to show a real-life Amsterdam red-light district (archived here).
illegal employment
Winifred Lartey, AFP’s correspondent in Ghana, acknowledged that such places do not exist in Accra or elsewhere in the country because sex work is prohibited.
“Although there are cases of prostitution in the country, this type of commercial sexual display does not exist anywhere in Ghana,” Lartey said. “Such things have not been documented, they have not appeared in the media, and they have not been mentioned by human rights lawyers in programs on various channels.”
“Sex work is illegal in this country, so people do it in secret. They don’t advertise themselves for everyone to see because they can get arrested,” she added.
The Criminal Offenses Act 1960 (Act 29, 276) criminalizes solicitation in a public place (archive here). First-time offenders are subject to fines, but repeat offenders are subject to harsher penalties, including imprisonment.
Although the viral video does not reflect the actual venue in Accra, a 2020 study conducted by a consortium of researchers including the University of Ghana and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global HIV/TB Division estimated that around 60,000 sex workers were working in the country at the time (archived here).
