{"id":23020,"date":"2025-06-04T11:48:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T10:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=23020"},"modified":"2025-06-04T11:48:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T10:48:27","slug":"viral-photo-of-sierra-leonean-tiktoker-with-lionel-messi-al-generated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/viral-photo-of-sierra-leonean-tiktoker-with-lionel-messi-al-generated\/","title":{"rendered":"Viral photo of Sierra Leonean TikToker with Lionel Messi, Al-generated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: <\/strong>A Facebook page, Benjamin\u2019s Blog, has alleged that Sierra Leonean TikToker and movie Star Peter Komba has linked up with Lionel Messi, with the duo taking a picture together. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict: <\/strong>False! <\/strong>There is no evidence that Lionel Messi linked up with Peter Komba. The image is doctored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peter Komba, Sierra Leone\u2019s most-followed TikTok celebrity, made his way into Nollywood by being featured in popular Nigerian movies. Peter, seen as the new face of the Sierra Leonean movie industry, starred in his first movie with Nollywood star Regina Daniels in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie, \u201cLovers and Foes,\u201d featured renowned movie stars like Timini Egbuson and Arthur Ejiofor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, Peter Komba has appeared on bigger screens with popular Nollywood stars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a viral post by Benjamin\u2019s Blog<\/a> claimed that Peter A. Komba has linked up with Lionel Messi, the eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blog shared three photos of Peter Komba in a white vest, sitting beside Lionel Messi, with the caption: \u201cWow!! Peter A. Komba linked up with Leonel Messi.\u201d He added, \u201cWhat a privilege for Messi; Messi\u2019s dream has finally come to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sparked controversy among social media followers, garnering 1,100 likes, 104 comments, and 21 shares within 23 hours of the claim being posted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the majority of followers doubted the claim, a few of them believed it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of comments made by followers.\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The claim was also reported on different Sierra Leonean blogs like here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA decided to fact-check the claim to clarify the doubts among social media users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When DUBAWA conducted a Google keyword search to verify the claim, there was no evidence of the claim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further search revealed that Peter Komba uploaded the photo to his official Facebook<\/a> page on May 30, 2025, with the caption \u201cI love this.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA contacted Peter Komba via WhatsApp regarding the claim, but he did not respond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researcher also subjected the picture to an Al-detector tool, \u201dImgDetect,\u201d which showed that it is  99% Al-generated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of the result.\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The claim that Peter A. Komba linked up with Lionel Messi is false because no evidence supports it. The image is AI-generated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: A Facebook page, Benjamin\u2019s Blog, has alleged that Sierra Leonean TikToker and movie Star Peter Komba has linked up with Lionel Messi, with the duo taking a picture together.  Verdict: False! There is no evidence that Lionel Messi linked up with Peter Komba. The image is doctored.  Full Text Peter Komba, Sierra Leone\u2019s most-followed TikTok celebrity, made his way into Nollywood by being featured in popular Nigerian movies. Peter, seen as the new face of the Sierra Leonean movie industry, starred in his first movie with Nollywood star Regina Daniels in 2024. The movie, \u201cLovers and Foes,\u201d featured renowned movie stars like Timini Egbuson and Arthur Ejiofor. Since then, Peter Komba has appeared on bigger screens with popular Nollywood stars.  However, a viral post by Benjamin\u2019s Blog claimed that Peter A. Komba has linked up with Lionel Messi, the eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner.  The blog shared three photos of Peter Komba in a white vest, sitting beside Lionel Messi, with the caption: \u201cWow!! Peter A. Komba linked up with Leonel Messi.\u201d He added, \u201cWhat a privilege for Messi; Messi\u2019s dream has finally come to pass.\u201d This sparked controversy among social media followers, garnering 1,100 likes, 104 comments, and 21 shares within 23 hours of the claim being posted.  While the majority of followers doubted the claim, a few of them believed it.   The claim was also reported on different Sierra Leonean blogs like here, here, here,  here, here, and here. DUBAWA decided to fact-check the claim to clarify the doubts among social media users.  Verification When DUBAWA conducted a Google keyword search to verify the claim, there was no evidence of the claim.  Further search revealed that Peter Komba uploaded the photo to his official Facebook page on May 30, 2025, with the caption \u201cI love this.\u201d   DUBAWA contacted Peter Komba via WhatsApp regarding the claim, but he did not respond.  The researcher also subjected the picture to an Al-detector tool, \u201dImgDetect,\u201d which showed that it is  99% Al-generated.  Conclusion The claim that Peter A. Komba linked up with Lionel Messi is false because no evidence supports it. The image is AI-generated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1268,1571,4,3812,3815],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[4456],"class_list":["post-23020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sierra-leone","category-fact-check","category-featured","category-headline","category-homepage"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-5Zi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":4456,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"mohamed-dauda-kamara","display_name":"Mohamed Dauda kamara","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-04-at-11.14.23%E2%80%AFAM.png?fit=530%2C542&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23022,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23020\/revisions\/23022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23020"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=23020"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=23020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}