Fake video of Ghislaine Maxwell in Canada manipulated using AI
- Published on February 26, 2026 at 21:18
- 2 min read
- By Gwen Roley, AFP Canada
British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking but social media users are spreading a video they claim shows her on the streets of Quebec City, the capital of Canada's francophone province. But the clip is a fake; the account which originally shared the video confirmed it was created by inserting Maxwell's likeness into a scene with artificial intelligence.
"Pizza enthusiast in Canada thinks he sees his old pizza delivery girl, Ghislaine Maxwell," claims the caption of a February 21, 2026 Facebook video, appearing to allude to the debunked "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory.
The clip shows a woman resembling Maxwell doing a double-take and denying she is "Ghislaine" after someone calls out that name on the streets of Quebec City.
Numerous other posts viewed millions of times on Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok -- including some in Spanish -- spread the visuals from the video. Some users claimed to provide analysis of the figure's facial features, pointing to physical similarities with Maxwell as proof she was not in prison and walking free in Canada.
"If you look at the woman in the video, it's the same woman," the speaker in another February 21 Facebook video says.
Maxwell was convicted in 2022 and is the only person serving a sentence for crimes in connection to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
She was moved from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security facility in Texas in August 2025. After being subpoenaed to testify on her relations with Epstein, the US House Oversight Committee released a recording of Maxwell from a February 9, 2026 deposition where she declined to speak without being granted clemency.
Politicians, royalty and celebrities were referred to in the US Justice Department's recent release of documents related to Epstein's alleged crimes, but doctored images placing high profile people with the late financier and his associates, such as Maxwell, also frequently circulate.
The video of Maxwell supposedly walking about Quebec City is similarly fake.
Many of the posts resharing the footage include the username "clump.qc" which appears to have been the first Instagram and TikTok account to share the video on February 18 (archived here and here).
The profiles are full of similar videos of seemingly surprise encounters with public figures such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Quebec Premier François Legault, and Epstein himself (archived here, here and here), often using the hashtags "prank" or "humor."
Contacted by AFP, clump.qc confirmed the clip of Maxwell was a manipulation created with the artificial intelligence tool Remaker.ai. The user said in a February 25 direct message that the intention behind their clips was humor and "ragebait," but not misinformation.
The video was created by face-swapping Maxwell's likeness into the clip, according to the original poster. Landmarks in the footage appear to reflect real scenes from Quebec City near the Saint Jean Gate landmark in the old city (archived here).
Other outlets covering the fake Maxwell video noted clump.qc's Instagram post now included Meta's artificial intelligence warning label which was not present when the video was first shared.
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.
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