AI-generated content floods social media, distorting the narrative around Venezuela’s captured leader Nicolas Maduro and raising disinformation concerns.
CARACAS: The capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has ignited a fierce online propaganda war, heavily fuelled by artificial intelligence.
Since his arrest in early January, social media has been flooded with AI-generated images and videos that blur the lines between fiction and reality.
The content ranges from comedic memes to dramatic scenes, including one of an animated Maduro declaring himself a “prisoner of war” in a New York courtroom.
Another popular clip shows an AI-generated Maduro attempting a prison escape, only to end up dancing with a cartoon Donald Trump.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured during US strikes in Caracas on January 3.
They are now held in a New York prison on drug trafficking charges, an event celebrated by some but reframed by his Chavismo movement.
Researcher Leon Hernandez describes the phenomenon as the development of “disinformation labs” that overwhelm social media platforms.
“The idea was to create confusion and generate skepticism by distorting certain elements of real things,” Hernandez told AFP.
He added the goal is to flood audiences with content so they cannot follow the actual narrative.
Even state broadcaster VTV aired an AI-animated video narrated by a child recounting Maduro’s capture.
“AI has become the new instrument of power for autocrats to confuse, combat, and silence dissent,” said Professor Elena Block of the University of Queensland.
Block notes that cartoons have long been a propaganda tool for both authoritarian and democratic states.
Before his arrest, Maduro was depicted as the superhero “Super Bigote,” fighting monsters like the “North American empire.”
The cartoon’s popularity led to toys being carried by his supporters at rallies demanding his return.
Maduro continued a policy of “media domination” to stifle criticism of his Chavismo movement in traditional news outlets.
“With censorship and the weakening of news media, social media has emerged as one of the only spaces for information,” Block said.
She points out that Maduro is not alone, citing Donald Trump’s frequent use of AI-generated content with aggressive language.
“These digital and AI tools end up trivialising politics: you don’t explain it, you diminish it,” Block concluded. “AI today is the greatest threat to democracy.”
