Ghanaian President’s fabricated post claims Nigeria superior to Ghana

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Claim: Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghana’s president, allegedly posted on X that Nigeria is superior to Ghana in aesthetics, economy, and entertainment.

Verdict: The post is fabricated using an AI tool called “Fake Details.” This makes the claim not only deceptive but also false.

Full Text

Comparisons between countries are a prevalent topic on social media, with discussions often centering on perceived strengths in diverse domains, including economic prowess, cultural achievements, entertainment, technological advancements, and overall quality of life. 

Individuals often articulate national pride and proclaim the superiority of their country in these realms, occasionally sparking spirited debates. While such conversations contribute to a sense of national identity, they may also give way to misunderstandings, stereotypes, and division. 

Just recently, a TikTok user, @dior btc, shared the screenshot of a statement allegedly made on X by Nana Akufo-Addo, the president of Ghana. The remark cautioned Ghanaian citizens against “insulting Nigeria,” emphasising that Nigeria is bigger than Ghana in terms of economic power, entertainment, and beauty. 

“My Ghana citizen, stop questioning your father’s (Nigeria) Nigeria is 100% bigger than Ghana in terms of money there’re bigger, music there’re bigger too, beauty there’re bigger. Please stop the insult towards Nigeria because they are your father’s,” the assertion reads.

At a glance, this statement did not look like what a president would make. However, we found other users commenting that they had been misled.

For example, a user @princebby_1 boldly affirmed the post, writing, “I’m a Ghanaian; everything our president said is all true.”

In solidarity, @PrinceBillions, another user, also said that he is Ghanaian, but their country is “empty without Nigeria.”

The post has garnered over 6,000 likes and 1,000 diverse comments as of the press time. Given the personality involved and the kind of comments that have ensued, DUBAWA conducted this fact check to set the records straight.

Verification

Commencing verification, we noticed four red flags: the grammatical incoherence in the post, the peculiar formatting of retweets and likes, the lack of view numbers, and the unusual timestamp.

In the tweet attributed to the president, the post showed “9786558 retweets” and “97753747 likes.” It is unusual for X to represent figures exceeding hundreds straightforwardly. For instance, instead of writing 3,000 likes, X typically puts it as 3K likes. In cases involving millions of likes, as the one being scrutinised, X would write it as 9.7M retweets and 9.7M likes. However, there is another twist. In contrast to this particular claim, X rather uses icons to represent likes and retweets, not writing out the words as illustrated below:

Regarding the timestamp, “AM” or “PM” is typically written in uppercase letters. However, this post has a deviation where “am” was written in lowercase letters.

This set of red flags raised suspicion, hinting at the possibility that the purported president’s post might be fabricated. We searched for the username used on X and found it similar to that of an unverified parody account with 223 followers. The most recent post on this parody account is dated Oct. 5, 2020. This contrasts with the date mentioned in the claim, Jan. 6, 2024. Mr Akufo-Addo’s official account, on the other hand, boasts 2.6 million followers with the X verification badge.

Furthermore, we observed two more discrepancies in the circulating screenshot. The account used carried the blue X verification badge. Additionally, the president’s surname was written without a hyphen, a deviation from his authentic account and, interestingly, the identified fake account. These prove that the statement neither emanated from the parody nor the president’s original X account, concluding that it was entirely fabricated.

Fake post generator

Technological advancement and the emergence of artificial intelligence have primarily contributed to the rise in information disorder, notably through what is known as “fake post generator.”

Fake chat and social media post generators allow users to create conversations or posts that appear genuine but are entirely fictional. These generators are often used for entertainment, pranks, or to create content for various purposes. While some may be harmless and used for fun, others are deliberately deployed to misinform or disinform unsuspecting internet users.

One such tool is Fake Details. From Emails to Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, X, TikTok, and YouTube, Fake Details are used to fabricate messages, chats and posts. It has unique features, giving users the liberty to craft fictional content that appears original. Unless scrutinised closely, discerning the falseness of the outputs from this tool proves challenging.

Interestingly, it turned out that Mr Akufo-Addo’s alleged X post was fabricated with this tool. Following the outlined procedures on the Fake Details website, we easily created a fake X post for DUBAWA.

Conclusion

The statement allegedly made by Mr Akufo-Addo is false. The X post was fabricated, using Fake Details to perpetuate the narrative.