Overview
- Maduro and Cilia Flores remain in U.S. custody after a Jan. 3 raid; Maduro pleaded not guilty in a New York federal court on Jan. 5 and is being held in a New York facility.
- The most-shared celebration clip was synthetic, traced by fact-checkers to TikTok creators such as @curiousmindusa and @ia_comediante, after it was posted on X by Wall Street Apes and reshared by Elon Musk before he removed it.
- Snopes, BBC, AFP, DW and others debunked circulating images, including a supposed DEA escort photo that Google’s SynthID flagged as AI-generated, while verified custody visuals were released by White House-linked accounts and Reuters.
- NewsGuard identified seven fabricated or misrepresented visuals tied to the operation that amassed over 14 million X views in under two days, with additional viral posts repurposing older footage like UCLA’s ‘undie run,’ 2024–2025 protest videos and a 2003 Saddam Hussein image.
- Specialists such as Reality Defender’s CEO warn rapidly improving image models now outpace manual checks, even as platforms rely on community notes and limited labels and on-the-ground celebrations inside Venezuela remain muted compared with diaspora events abroad.