Mexican president blames Meta labelling failure for her use of fake Ryan Wedding image

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday blamed Meta, Instagram’s parent company, for failing to place an Artificial Intelligence tag on a fake image of alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding that she recently used at a news conference.

Wedding is now facing trial in California after the U.S. took custody of him in Mexico, but Sheinbaum is under increasing pressure to explain the details of that arrest after conflicting statements over what happened surfaced from the Mexican government and U.S. authorities.

During a news conference Monday, the president displayed an image from an Instagram account of Wedding standing in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, saying he had surrendered there. A CBC News analysis found that the image had been generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

The image was posted on an Instagram account that claims to be linked to Wedding, who was an Olympic snowboarder for Team Canada in 2002. A CBC News investigation previously revealed that the account had posted AI-generated photos of Wedding. 

Sheinbaum faced questions over the use of the fake image from a journalist, who referred to the CBC News report, during a regular morning media conference Tuesday. 

The Mexican president said that Meta had failed to label the image as having been manipulated by AI. 

“Every social network has a policy that when there is a photograph or any information using artificial intelligence … it must have the letters IA or AI, depending on if it’s in English or Spanish. In this case, it does not have any indication that it is artificial intelligence,” said Sheinbaum. 

She noted that there was no label from Meta explaining that the image used AI, which she says is what the company’s social media policy indicates should happen.

Meta says it aims to label AI content that it manages to detect on its platforms. But the company states that “not all AI content contains the information needed to identify it,” according to a description of its policy around labelling AI content on Instagram.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Account provided manipulated ID card image

CBC News has twice made contact with the Instagram account @bossryanw to seek proof that it is connected to the real Wedding. 

When CBC News reached out, the person behind the Instagram account asked to communicate over encrypted messaging app Threema, which Wedding also used. But when CBC asked, the user did not provide any concrete proof that the accounts were connected to Wedding.

On Monday, CBC News received a message from the Threema account, claiming that it was being managed by Myriam Castillo, Wedding’s wife.

The message said there had been lucrative offers from other media organizations seeking an exclusive interview with Castillo.

The account also sent CBC News a partial image of a Mexican ID card with Castillo’s name.

CBC’s visual investigations unit reviewed the image and found evidence of AI generation or other manipulation. The photo and name on the card appear to be a higher resolution than the rest of the image, which is compressed and of poor quality.

Mexico faces scrutiny about arrest details

At Monday’s news conference Sheinbaum used the @bossryanw Instagram account, which had purged all images except one AI-generated photo of Wedding standing in front of the former U.S. embassy in Mexico City, to bolster the government’s claim that he had surrendered to U.S. authorities at the embassy.  

Sheinbaum read the message published with the fake photo, saying Wedding had gone to the U.S. embassy on “his own two feet.”

Wedding is currently facing 17 charges before a U.S. federal court in California, including conspiracy to export cocaine, continuing criminal enterprise, murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime and retaliation against a witness, victim or an informant by completed murder.  

The Mexican government has been facing scrutiny at home over statements made by FBI director Kash Patel and Wedding’s lawyer, suggesting that the Thunder Bay, Ont., native was captured in an operation involving U.S. agents on Mexican soil. 

This is a potentially politically explosive revelation for Sheinbaum’s government, which has insisted that the U.S. is not permitted to conduct any on-the-ground operations in the country. 

Anthony Colombo, Wedding’s lawyer, on Monday called Sheinbaum’s position that Wedding had surrendered “spin” and said his client had been “arrested” in Mexico. Colombo compared Wedding’s apprehension in Mexico to the U.S. operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. 

“One can understand why [Mexico’s] statement might have been put out. Because if the U.S. government is unilaterally going into a sovereign country and apprehending somebody, you can understand the concern that sovereign entity might have,” said Colombo.  

News of surrender came from U.S.: Sheinbaum

Sheinbaum on Tuesday reiterated the position that Wedding surrendered, but with a slight shift.

The Mexican president said that this belief was based on information provided to her government by the U.S. 

“U.S. authorities told Mexican authorities that there was a voluntary surrender,” said Sheinbaum. 

“Now, how exactly did he surrender? Well, we don’t know the details. What we do know is what the United States authorities here told Mexican authorities.”

She referred to a post on X in English and Spanish by the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson, who stated that Wedding’s “surrender” was “the direct result of pressure applied by” Mexican and U.S. law enforcement.

When asked by journalists about the discrepancies between her government’s position and statements made by Patel and Colombo, Sheinbaum held firm. 

“Why are they making statements like that over there? Well, that is something they have to comment on,” she said. “We don’t want this to turn into a dispute. We always tell the truth. We have no reason to lie.”

Pressed by journalists on whether the U.S. may have hidden its operation to grab Wedding from Mexico, Sheinbaum said she doubted that would happen.

“They have to inform us about what they do in Mexico,” she said. 

“We are telling the truth, that’s what they told us.”