MULTIPLE POSTS SHARED on social media that appear to show Irish country star Daniel O’Donnell are fake with images generated by AI.

An account on Facebook with the name Country Music Memories has been sharing multiple posts with images purporting to show O’Donnell, his wife Majella, and other relatives and friends. 

The images are AI-generated, and the captions contain misleading or false information.

Usually, the posts refer to either an illness O’Donnell is allegedly suffering, or a tribute he made to a collaborator or family member who has died. This is in order to maximise their emotional impact so that unwitting social media users share and engage with the content.

The posts all contain links to websites that contain fake articles and link to other false stories. A Google reverse image search of the images shared show no versions of the pictures from credible sites.

One example of a post contains an AI-generated image of Daniel and Majella sitting looking dejected in what appears to be a hospital room, with medical equipment and people dressed in blue scrubs in the background.

An accompanying caption reads: “HEARTBREAK IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC — Daniel O’Donnell shares an urgent personal update, a quiet moment away from the stage has left fans deeply concerned.”

This post has had close to 1,000 reactions and has been shared multiple times.

Another post purports to show O’Donnell paying tribute to Ronnie O’Kennedy, who played the piano accordion with the singer for many years, before he died in 2021.

An AI-generated image showed a likeness of O’Donnell live in concert with a band and a crowd cheering, with an image of the singer with O’Kennedy in the background. 

These are just two of multiple posts that are being shared by the page purporting to show O’Donnell and linking to fake articles. You can spot some AI-generated images by the fact that they depict unlikely situations (like people looking sad in a hospital room) and often have an overly polished, hyper-real quality.

O’Donnell has frequently been the object of fake posts and AI-generated images, with his likeness being used to scam unwitting social media users and fans. He has released numerous statements stating that the only place to get official news is from his official Facebook page.

The Journal reported last year on three separate incidents in which O’Donnell gave official statements rejecting claims that he or any member of his family were ill.

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