When seeing is no longer believing

I read with keen interest a Facebook post in which the writer felt compelled to issue a disclaimer that a photograph circulating on social media, one allegedly depicting her with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit, was not authentic. The image, she explained, had been generated using artificial intelligence (AI). More striking than the clarification itself was her appeal to the public, and to media practitioners in particular, to verify information from official sources and to refrain from sharing manipulated or unverified content. But what lingered long after reading the post was her sobering caution: “In 2026, visual content alone is no longer sufficient proof of authenticity.”

That statement marks a quiet but profound rupture with how societies have understood truth for more than a century. For generations, photographs and video footage carried a special authority. Words could be disputed, testimonies questioned, but an image was often treated as the final word.