Fact-checking by @AFP. Official account of the world's biggest network of fact checkers. Also on Instagram: @AFPFactCheck
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🇿🇦 After South Africa ordered refugee offices to resume processing asylum applications, false claims spread online, including AI fakes targeting the Democratic Alliance and Home Affairs.
Read more: u.afp.com/AsylumSA
As Myanmar migrants rallied against Min Aung Hlaing's trip to Malaysia in October, social media posts falsely shared an old video as footage of the gathering. We traced the clip to a cost-of-living protest in Kuala Lumpur in 2025. u.afp.com/SyoZ
🇺🇸🗳️ Three widely shared videos of voting machines acting up are unrelated to the 2026 US midterms.
The clips date back to 2014, 2018 and 2019 and show election technology no longer in use in Mississippi, Virginia or Indiana u.afp.com/SyiH
Following hardline monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara's appearance in court wearing a prison uniform, social media users falsely circulated an old image purportedly showing him without his robes in Japan. But we found the man in the picture is not Gnanasara. u.afp.com/Sy3b
As unrest followed France's recent student-led protests, social media posts shared an old video falsely claiming demonstrators carried only Palestinian flags. But we found the clip was filmed during a pro-Palestinian rally in Paris from 2025.
u.afp.com/SyZN
🇺🇸🗳️ Misinformation targets Maricopa County ahead of 2026 midterms u.afp.com/SykL
ALT Signs point to an early voting center on the Arizona State University west campus in Glendale, Arizona
Amid riots that followed France's October 2026 cost-of-living protests, social media users recirculated an old interview falsely linked to the demonstrations. We found the footage was taken from a 2017 DW interview and is unrelated to the recent unrest. u.afp.com/SCtA
🇺🇸🗳️ Cook County, Illinois targeted with unsubstantiated claims of 'rigged' voting machines u.afp.com/Syku
ALT Voters check in at an early voting polling location in Wheaton, Illinois
Russian disinformation targets James Talarico with unfounded sexual assault claim u.afp.com/SCCp
ALT James Talarico speaks from a podium while wearing a white shirt and navy suit jacket
Despite stubbornly high crime rates in South Africa, claims that a video showing a foiled business robbery caught on CCTV in the country are false. The dramatic incident took place at a bakery in Mexico in 2023
u.afp.com/SCjJ
Albertans roundly rejected a future binding independence referendum. More ballots were cast on that issue than the other nine immigration and constitutional questions put to voters, but contrary to claims online, this is not evidence of election fraud u.afp.com/SCKG
ALT Voters leave a polling place in Edmonton, Alberta
⚠️ Beware of fabricated graphics that appear to show Angus Reid projecting high support for Alberta separation.
The polling firm never published any data corresponding to this image u.afp.com/SCzr
ALT Screenshot of an X post with a red x across it to indicate the claim is false
🇨🇦 The cause of the deadly fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright remains under investigation, but this clip of a massive explosion is unrelated. It was first published in August in connection to a blast at an arms factory outside Rome u.afp.com/SCEd
US influence, AI and mistrust cloud Alberta independence vote u.afp.com/SChF
ALT A red truck flying the Alberta flag circles a separatist event in Medicine Hat, southwestern Alberta
Supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan rallied in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in October 2026, but a video purportedly showing protesters setting a building ablaze actually shows protests in Nepal in 2025.
u.afp.com/SCWr
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court reinstated a prison sentence for hardline monk Gnanasara, prompting protests by his supporters. But this circulating image purportedly showing monks marching in protest was generated using AI.
u.afp.com/SCsy
Claims that a Cleveland Clinic study found the risk of contracting influenza increases after getting the shot misrepresent the findings of a paper which has yet to be peer-reviewed u.afp.com/SChC
Wildfires in Indonesia have shrouded parts of the region in toxic haze, but satellite imagery and Malaysian authorities indicate a circulating map exaggerates the scale of the fires. We also found it was generated with AI. u.afp.com/SCQW
🌀 No human-made technology is capable of creating or redirecting hurricanes.
Despite their near-simultaneous development, meteorologists say tropical systems Isaias, Rachel and Simon resulted from natural weather conditions u.afp.com/SChy
