By Dara Kerr
Publication Date: 2026-01-06 00:32:00
Minutes after Donald Trump announced a “large-scale attack” against Venezuela early Saturday morning, false and misleading AI-generated images began flooding social media. There were fake photos of Nicolás Maduro being escorted off a plane by US law enforcement officers, images of cheering Venezuelans streaming through the streets of Caracas and videos of rockets raining down on the city – all fake.
The made-up content was mixed with real videos and photos of U.S. planes flying over the Venezuelan capital and explosions lighting up the dark sky. The lack of verified information about the raid coupled with the rapidly expanding capabilities of AI tools made it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction about the Caracas incursion.
By the time Trump posted a verified photo of Maduro blindfolded, handcuffed and wearing gray sweatpants aboard the warship USS Iwo Jima, the fake images featuring US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents had already gone viral. About X, Instagram,…
