Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior deepfake video — Sep 2026
A viral video falsely claiming to show footballer Neymar posing with a real woman has been debunked as a digital manipulation featuring an AI-generated figure
- Incident date
- Sep 2026
- Target
- Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior
In September 2026, a viral video circulating on social media purported to show Brazilian footballer Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior posing with a Black woman. The footage sparked significant online engagement, garnering over 800 reposts and 10,000 likes on X before being identified as misleading.
What happened
The video was shared by an X account with a caption suggesting the woman was a real person, using the footage to make a broader social commentary. Investigations by The FactCheckHub traced the source of the footage to an Instagram account under the handle @INESSA_Garcie. This account had previously published multiple clips featuring the same woman appearing alongside Neymar in various staged settings, including scenes where she appeared to be conversing with the footballer.
To verify the authenticity of the subject, investigators utilized PimEyes, a facial recognition search engine. The search failed to return any evidence that the woman depicted is a real person. Further technical analysis of the footage revealed visual characteristics consistent with AI-generated imagery. Based on these findings, it was determined that the woman is not a real individual but an AI-generated figure inserted into the footage with Neymar. Consequently, the claim that the video serves as proof of a real-life encounter was classified as misleading.