Recycled or recent? The Nigerian Army photo controversy explained 

Following the United States’ threat to invade Nigeria if the government fails to stop what President Donald Trump described as “Christian genocide,” many Nigerians began predicting that security agencies would soon start showcasing “performative operations” online.

Some users suggested that the police or military might begin publicising arrests or “success stories” to create a perception of progress in the eyes of the international community.

Coincidentally, on Nov. 3, 2025, three days after Trump’s statement, the Nigerian Army posted four images on its official X account. The images announced the rescue of two kidnapped victims and the recovery of ransom during an operation in Kogi State.

X users quickly challenged the post. They claimed the images were recycled from previous incidents, concluding that the Army was attempting to manufacture results. 

One user, @UnkleAyo, shared what appeared to be a reverse image search result. He said that the photos had been online for as long as “9 months ago.”

A screenshot of @UnkleAyo’s counter-claim.

His comment ignited widespread debate among other users. Community Notes on X also flagged the Army’s post, accusing the institution of reusing old images to portray new success.

“The pictures attached have been proven to be from months ago, and not recent, making the claims in the post false. A search by some users showed the pictures are from 9 months ago.”

On Nov. 4, 2025, the Nigerian Army issued a public rebuttal. It released additional images and a timestamped video, insisting the operation was recent and legitimate.

The Army stated that the rescue operation in Kogi State took place on Nov. 2, 2025, and that the images shared online were genuine. It also accused some individuals of circulating doctored versions of the photos to falsely claim they were recycled.

“Even more concerning is that some individuals and bloggers, without proper verification, have amplified this misinformation aimed at discrediting the Nigerian Army, a professional institution constitutionally mandated to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Nigeria,” part of the statement reads.

Did the Army reuse its rescue images? 

Despite the Army’s response, some key questions remain: Were the images truly from a recent operation? Was the shared reverse image search result accurate? What does this controversy mean for the reliability and accountability of X’s community notes system?  

DUBAWA conducted a reverse image search on the pictures shared, and the results were similar to those posted by @UnkleAyo. Beyond the result that showed “nine months ago,” we also found posts from as far back as five years ago with preview images that appeared identical to the ones in question.

However, upon opening each of these links, the posts turned out to be completely different and unrelated. The few matching image previews all traced back to the Nigerian Army’s recent post, not older incidents.

Therefore, while the reverse image search result shared by @UnkleAyo was genuine, the posts it pointed to had no actual connection to the Army’s rescue images. This makes the community notes’ verdict misleading.

Community Notes’ role in the controversy

Community Notes is a “crowdsourced content moderation system” designed to combat misinformation and provide additional context to social media posts. 

According to X Help Centre, it “aims to create a better informed world by empowering people on X to add context to potentially misleading posts collaboratively.”

It allows contributors to leave notes on any post, and “if enough contributors from different points of view rate that note as helpful, the note will be publicly shown” on such a post.

As in the case under verification, DUBAWA could conclude that the Nigerian Army’s post was flagged as untrue because multiple users voted @UnkleAyo’s context as helpful. However, without conducting an independent verification, it is possible that the community notes’ verdict ended up misleading more users.

Who should moderate social media posts?

The question of who should moderate social media content is not a new subject. While independent fact-checkers like DUBAWA have been fighting online misinformation and disinformation, Meta partnered with these non-partisan organisations to identify potentially untrue information across its platforms, conduct fact-checks, and report such content. This made it easier for Meta to flag misleading or false posts.

Unlike Meta, others, such as X, still rely on community notes. Unfortunately, Meta recently announced its plan to adopt the same technique, which is now appearing to be failing.

While the community notes’ goal is to foster a sense of involvement, one of its setbacks remains that users with little to no knowledge about a subject matter are also permitted to determine what information the public considers true or false.