A video circulating on TikTok, allegedly showing French politician Marine Le Pen delivering a speech on Africa, has been found to be manipulated. The video, dated October 27, 2026, features Le Pen seemingly criticizing French diplomacy and acknowledging French mistakes in Africa. However, a thorough examination by PesaCheck, a fact-checking organization, has revealed significant inconsistencies in the video.
PesaCheck's analysis found a notable discrepancy between Le Pen's voice and lip movements in the video. To verify the authenticity of the audio, PesaCheck extracted the soundtrack and submitted it to Hive Moderation, a specialized tool. The technical expertise revealed with 98.5% certainty that the audio recording was generated using artificial intelligence and superimposed on the video.
Further investigation by PesaCheck involved a reverse image search using a screenshot from the manipulated video. The search led to the original sequence, which was published by French news channel TF1 on its YouTube channel on October 25, 2026. The original video shows Le Pen speaking at a political rally in Orléans, France, as part of a National Rally congress.
In the original video, Le Pen's speech focuses exclusively on French domestic policy issues, including security, justice, economy, purchasing power, immigration, and national sovereignty. She criticizes the French government but makes no mention of French foreign policy in Africa or the presence of Russia and China on the continent.
PesaCheck's findings are part of an ongoing effort to verify facts and debunk potential misinformation on social media platforms, including Facebook. The organization partners with Facebook and similar social media platforms to help users distinguish between fact and fiction.
The manipulated video is an example of the type of disinformation that PesaCheck and other fact-checking organizations aim to identify and correct. By providing the public with a deeper understanding and context of the content they see on social media, PesaCheck helps to promote a more informed public discourse.
The verification of the video's authenticity was made possible through the collaboration of PesaCheck with other organizations and the use of specialized tools. This case highlights the importance of fact-checking and the need for vigilance in the face of manipulated content on social media platforms.
Key points
- The video of Marine Le Pen criticizing French diplomacy in Africa is manipulated using artificial intelligence.
- The original video shows Le Pen speaking at a political rally in Orléans, France, on October 25, 2026.
- PesaCheck's findings are part of an ongoing effort to verify facts and debunk potential misinformation on social media platforms.
