At Least 294 Purported AI-Generated Music Videos Portray Celebrities Praising Burkina Faso's Ibrahim Traoré

Between March and May 2025, at least 294 purported AI-generated deepfake music videos were uploaded across a reported 127 YouTube channels, collectively garnering over 8.6 million views by the end of May. The videos depict global celebrities (including Beyoncé, Rihanna, R. Kelly, Selena Gomez, Eminem, and Justin Bieber) praising Burkinabe President Ibrahim Traoré and endorsing military rule.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.1 Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale

The incident involves a coordinated campaign using AI-generated deepfakes of celebrities to conduct large-scale disinformation and influence public opinion across multiple countries to support a military junta.

Additional risk subdomains

• 4.3 Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation: The campaign misappropriated the public likenesses of global celebrities to falsely claim they endorsed a military leader.
• 3.1 False or misleading information: The AI systems generated false videos and fabricated claims about celebrity endorsements, misleading influencers and the public.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The disinformation campaign was intentionally orchestrated by human actors using post-deployment AI video and audio generation tools to influence public opinion.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The AI systems were used to generate deepfakes (synthetic audio and video of celebrities). Under the EU AI Act, providers of AI systems that generate or manipulate image, audio or video content (deepfakes) must disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: unspecified
• AI purpose: Deepfake Video Generation; Voice Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown voice cloning technology, Unknown deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unknown actors, Pro-Ibrahim Traoré information ecosystem
• Alleged harmed parties: Truth, Selena Gomez, Rihanna, R. Kelly, National security and intelligence stakeholders, Justin Bieber, General public of Burkina Faso, General public, Epistemic integrity, Eminem, Beyoncé

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Severe. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Severe, indirect Severe
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Minor, indirect Substantial
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Severe, indirect Severe
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Financial

Reported: The report explicitly describes financial transactions related to the creation of the deepfake videos.

Directly caused: The Nigerian creator charged about $1,000 per music video to produce the pro-Traore content.

Inferred additional harm: The celebrities whose likenesses were used without consent suffered unquantified potential financial losses due to unauthorized commercial-style exploitation of their brands.

Malicious content

Reported: The report explicitly describes malicious propaganda content created and spread directly by the incident.

Directly caused: At least 294 fake music videos promoting the military junta were posted on YouTube, obtaining over 8.6 million views.

Indirectly caused: Social media users and influencers shared this synthetic content, amplifying its reach across platforms like Facebook and TikTok.

Inferred additional harm: Similar propaganda content may have been spread on other platforms, exposing millions more to malicious political manipulation.

Democracy

Reported: The report explicitly describes the erosion of democratic norms caused directly and indirectly by the incident.

Directly caused: The deepfake videos called for 'five more years of soldier's rule' and glorified a military leader who came to power in a coup d'etat.

Indirectly caused: The campaign aimed to mask the failure of Traore's security policies and reduce his diplomatic isolation, potentially prolonging military rule.

Inferred additional harm: Such campaigns could weaken democratic norms across the Sahel region by normalizing military regimes through synthetic popular support.

Epistemic

Reported: The report explicitly describes epistemic harm caused directly and indirectly by the incident.

Directly caused: The videos falsely depicted world-famous singers recording songs supporting the Burkinabe president, misleading influencers and social media users.

Indirectly caused: Influencers like Nancy Blaq (2.7 million followers) believed and shared the false claims, further polluting the information ecosystem.

Inferred additional harm: The widespread proliferation of realistic deepfakes erodes public trust in digital media and shared reality, making it harder to distinguish real endorsements from synthetic propaganda.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 5
• People reportedly exposed: 8600000

Potential causes

Management

• Profit-Driven AI Services: Creators sold AI generation services to unknown sponsors for profit.
• Exploitation of AI Scale: Sponsors capitalized on low-cost AI to run a massive propaganda campaign.

Technology

• Rapid Deepfake Generation: AI tools allowed rapid, cheap, and mass production of fake music videos.
• Realistic Voice Cloning: AI cloned celebrity voices to make the fake songs sound authentic.
• Automated Bot Networks: AI bots automated account creation and coordination to distribute content.

Data Inputs

• Celebrity Likeness Exploitation: Inputs used celebrity faces and voices without consent to generate videos.
• Text Generation Flaws: AI generated gibberish text on banners, indicating synthetic origins.

Human Factors

• Influencer Credibility Bias: Influencers fell for deepfakes and shared them as real to millions.
• Audience Susceptibility: English-speaking audiences lacked local context and believed the deepfakes.

Process and Methods

• Ineffective Platform Labeling: Synthetic content labels failed to prevent viral sharing by influencers.
• Lack of Coordinated Detection: Platforms failed to detect and block the coordinated multi-channel campaign.

Regulatory Environment

• Absence of Deepfake Regulations: Lack of international laws banning political deepfakes of foreign leaders.
• Weak Platform Accountability: No regulatory enforcement forcing platforms to remove synthetic propaganda.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report is highly detailed, providing specific numbers of videos (294), channels (127), views (8.6 million), and platforms used. It also includes direct testimony from the creator of the videos in Nigeria and analysis from disinformation experts, leaving little ambiguity about the nature and scale of the campaign.
• Ambiguities identified: The exact identity of the sponsors who paid the Nigerian creator remains unverified, and it is unclear if the comments supporting the videos were generated by bots or real users.
• Alternative interpretations: The videos could be viewed as simple artistic expression or political satire, but the coordinated nature and scale of the campaign strongly point to a deliberate disinformation effort.

A coordinated disinformation campaign used nearly 300 AI-generated celebrity deepfake music videos to legitimize Burkina Faso's military junta. Reaching over 8.6 million views, the campaign demonstrates an evolved capability to rapidly scale cheap, synthetic political propaganda across multiple nations, posing a substantial challenge to regional information security.

• Overall national security impact: Substantial
• Scope: Multiple nations
• Primary target: English-speaking African nations
• Other affected: Burkina Faso, Ghana
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. Represents an ongoing strategic capability and propaganda concern rather than an active, immediate national security crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. AI tools were actively directed and prompted by a human creator to generate specific synthetic music videos.
• Novelty: Evolved capability. While political deepfakes are established, the coordinated creation of hundreds of celebrity music videos to support a military junta represents an evolved capability in scaling propaganda.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical systems, critical infrastructure, or human safety threats are directly indicated in the incident reports.
• Information security: Substantial. Large-scale, coordinated information operation utilizing 294 deepfakes across 127 channels to reach 8.6 million views, aiming to manipulate public opinion and bolster a military junta's legitimacy.
• Sovereignty: Minor. Campaign seeks to build international legitimacy for a military junta, but does not directly compromise core sovereign government operations or electoral systems of the target nations.
• Economic security: Negligible. No significant threats to financial systems, strategic industries, or technological competitive advantages were reported.
• Societal stability: Minor. Erodes public trust in digital media and shared reality across multiple nations, but did not directly cause civil unrest or systemic human rights violations.