President Faustin Archange Touadéra of the Central African Republic officially launched the CAR memecoin on Feb. 9 via a video shared on his X account.
Deepfake Claims Dismissed
The President of the Central African Republic, Faustin Archange Touadéra, officially launched the CAR memecoin on Feb. 9, and the video shared via his X account is indeed “authentic,” according to the leader’s media team. The video was recorded in French, and an unidentified Paris-based compatriot was tasked with translating it into English.
Albert Yaloké Mokpeme, a spokesperson for the presidency, acknowledged in the French-language publication TF1 Info that the way the memecoin was launched raised doubts about the project.
“People want to be reassured, and I understand that. We want to reach the whole world [with this operation]. [Launching this] at night at home could be during the day in another part of the world,” Mokpeme said.
Immediately after Touadéra announced the launch of the memecoin, speculation grew that the African leader’s X account had been hacked. To support this assertion, “experts” in detecting deepfake videos pointed to what they perceived as inconsistencies in Touadéra’s video promoting the memecoin.
Others highlighted a recent trend in which cybercriminals hack the social media accounts of high-profile figures and post information encouraging followers to buy fake crypto tokens. In many cases, victims of the hack eventually regain control of their accounts, but only after the hackers have siphoned millions of dollars.
Tanzanian billionaire Mohammed Dewji is the latest high-profile figure in Africa to have his account used to promote a fake cryptocurrency. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, by the time Dewji regained control of his X account, hackers had stolen almost $1.5 million.
Meanwhile, in a Feb. 12 post on X, President Faustin Archange Touadéra thanked TF1 Info for helping to confirm that he was not a victim of a hack.
“Thank you, TF1, for the clarifications. My account was not hacked, I was not the victim of any deepfake, and I reaffirm my commitment to innovation, blockchain, and the development of CAR Memecoin in the Central African Republic,” Touadéra wrote on X.
