Copyright AFP 2017-2022. All rights reserved.
With election fever ramping up in Nigeria, candidates are holding rallies in major cities and looking to celebrities for public backing. One video circulating on social media purportedly shows Hollywood stars declaring their support for the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi. But this claim is false: AFP Fact Check found that the clip is a doctored mash-up of episodes from a US online series, in which celebrities answer the internet’s most searched questions about them. Obi does not feature in any of the original videos.
“Peter Obi movement has gone beyond Nigeria and Africa. Vote peter Obi 2023 (sic),” reads the caption of a TikTok video posted on November 22, 2022, and shared more than 3,000 times.
The 49-second clip shows a succession of popular Hollywood celebrities holding up whiteboards purportedly reading “Yes, it makes sense to vote Peter Obi in 2023”.
Obi has emerged as one of the top three contenders among 18 candidates looking to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 when the country holds general elections. Obi enjoys large support from the youth.
The TikTok video has since appeared on news blogs, YouTube and Facebook.
It was also shared on Twitter by popular Nigerian musician Charles Chukwuemeka Oputa and retweeted more than 5,000 times by some of his 159,000 followers before being deleted. Charly Boy, as he is widely known, is one of the Nigerian celebrities supporting Obi.
A screenshot of the tweet deleted by Charly boy, taken on November 21, 2022But the claim that Hollywood has lent its voice to Obi is false.
Altered video
Using video verification tool InVID-WeVerify, AFP Fact Check ran reverse image searches on keyframes from the video and traced them to the website of US technology magazine Wired.
The site features the original videos seen in the misleading clip. They are all episodes from the “WIRED Autocomplete Interview” series, which involves celebrities answering common questions about themselves on Google. The stars hold up whiteboards showing the search query.
We found that the original versions were edited to replace the real questions with the phrase “Yes, it makes sense to Vote Peter Obi in 2023”. The colours of the Nigerian flag were also added.
A screenshot of the edited video showing one of the celebrities holding the white boardMore than 20 episodes of the “WIRED” interview series were used to create the doctored TikTok video.
The first clip features WIRED’s interview with international stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, released on August 2, 2017. Asked if he was left-handed, Elba answers no.
A screenshot showing similarities between the original video interview on WIRED, left, and the altered versionAnother clip used in the doctored TikTok video is from an episode featuring US actor Tom Cruise and film director Doug Liman, posted on September 26, 2017. In reply to a question about his rock-climbing skills, Cruise confirms that he was trained in the sport a long time ago.
A screenshot showing similarities between the original video interview on WIRED, left, and the altered versionThe TikTok clip also contained an interview with movie stars Salma Hayek and Eugenio Derbez published on April 24, 2017. In the original footage, Hayek was asked what language she speaks.
A screenshot showing similarities between original video interview on WIRED, left, and the altered videoOther celebrities to feature in the doctored TikTok post include US professional wrestler John Cena and rapper 50 Cent.
AFP Fact Check has debunked several false and misleading claims linked to the 2023 election in Nigeria. You can find our coverage here.
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