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Claim: A viral Facebook post claims that Nigerian TikToker Peller met football star Lionel Messi in the United States. The post includes a photo showing Peller standing beside a man allegedly identified as Messi, accompanied by congratulatory messages celebrating the meeting.
Verdict: False. The image is doctored, and there is no evidence that Peller met Lionel Messi.
Full Text
A Facebook post by the Jadrolita Fans page alleges that Nigerian TikToker Peller met Lionel Messi in America. The post quickly attracted thousands of likes, comments, and shares. Many users congratulated Peller, believing the meeting was real. Several other pages posted the same picture, as can be seen here and here.
Because of the potential to mislead, DUBAWA decided to verify such claims as part of its mandate to promote truth in public discourse.
Verification
To verify this claim, DUBAWA conducted several checks. First, DUBAWA carefully examined the image. Visual inspection of the photo shows distortions in facial features, lighting inconsistencies, and unnatural blending around the faces. These are common signs of AI-generated or AI-edited images. The alleged Messi in the image does not fully match Lionel Messi’s recent public appearance, especially when compared with verified photos of him.
Second, DUBAWA checked Peller’s official social media pages, including his Facebook and TikTok accounts. There was no post, video, or mention suggesting that he met Lionel Messi. For a significant moment like meeting a global football icon, it would be expected that Peller would share such content himself, but this was not the case.
Third, DUBAWA also reviewed Lionel Messi’s verified social media account. Messi, who currently plays professional football in the United States, is often photographed and filmed during public appearances. However, there was no record, photo, or report showing that Messi met Peller.
In addition, credible sports news outlets and entertainment blogs did not report any such meeting. Given Messi’s global status, a meeting with a popular African content creator would likely attract wide media attention, but none was found.
Conclusion
The claim that Peller met Lionel Messi in America is not valid. The photo used to support the claim has clear signs of AI manipulation, and checks on both Peller’s and Messi’s official pages show no evidence of such a meeting. Based on these findings, DUBAWA concluded that the image circulating online is AI-distorted and the claim is false.
