AAP FACTCHECK – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to discuss regulating digital platforms, as claimed in a social media post.
The claim was made up by a well-known parody account on X (formerly Twitter) and shared to Facebook.
The post shared on Facebook shows images of Mr Albanese supposedly shaking hands and sitting at a desk with the North Korean dictator, along with text reading: “I had the opportunity to meet with Chairman Kim JongUn today to discuss the challenges of regulating digital platforms in the modern age.”
The source of the post is an Albanese parody X account and the pictures were generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
The account’s handle clearly states: “Anthony Albanese Australian Labor Parody.”
The bio reads: “Fake Prime Minister of Australia. Member for Grayndler. Unauthorised by Anthony Albanese …”
These key details are omitted from the Facebook post.
It isn’t the first time posts from the X parody account have been reposted on Facebook as if they are genuine.
A previous post debunked by AAP FactCheck claimed the PM said “free speech is a dangerous tool”.
Another debunked post claimed the PM had tweeted calling for pedophiles to be referred to as “minor-attracted persons”, while still others suggested Mr Albanese had received a congratulatory call from World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab on the passing of new digital ID laws.
This latest parody was posted on X on December 14.
The context is the Australian government‘s proposed regulation of digital platforms to combat anti-competitive behaviour and the exploitation of market power to harm Australian users.
It also comes after federal parliament passed laws to ban children under the age of 16 from opening accounts with some social media platforms.
Further confirming the images are fake is the presence of the Grok watermark in the bottom right corner of the pictures of the PM and Mr Kim.
Grok is the X AI assistant, which AAP FactCheck tested to produce fake images of Mr Albanese and Mr Kim. All images produced by Grok for AAP FactCheck bore the Grok symbol.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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