British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, currently serving a 20-year prison term for sex trafficking, has been falsely depicted in a video circulating on social media that claims to show her roaming the streets of Quebec City, the capital of Canada’s French-speaking province. However, the footage is a fabrication created by inserting Maxwell’s image into a scene using artificial intelligence technology.
The video, posted on February 21, 2026, features a caption jokingly referring to a “pizza enthusiast” in Canada who believes he recognizes his former pizza delivery person as Maxwell, indirectly referencing the debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory. In the clip, a woman resembling Maxwell appears to react with surprise and denies being “Ghislaine” when called out on the streets of Quebec City. This footage has been widely shared across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok, including posts in Spanish, garnering millions of views. Some users have attempted to analyze the facial features of the woman in the video, asserting that the similarities prove Maxwell is not incarcerated but free in Canada.
Maxwell was convicted in 2022 and remains the sole individual serving a sentence related to the crimes linked to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. In August 2025, she was transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security facility in Texas. Following a subpoena to testify about her connections with Epstein, the US House Oversight Committee released a recording from a February 9, 2026 deposition in which Maxwell refused to answer questions without clemency being granted.
Recent US Justice Department documents concerning Epstein’s alleged crimes have referenced politicians, royalty, and celebrities. Nonetheless, doctored images falsely associating prominent figures with Epstein and his associates, including Maxwell, frequently circulate online. The video purporting to show Maxwell in Quebec City is another example of such misinformation.
Many posts sharing the video trace back to the username “clump.qc,” which appears to be the original Instagram and TikTok account that uploaded the clip on February 18. This account features similar videos depicting surprise encounters with public figures such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Quebec Premier François Legault, and Epstein himself, often tagged with “prank” or “humor.” The landmarks visible in the video correspond to real locations near the Saint Jean Gate in Quebec City’s old town.
In a direct message sent on February 25, the operator of the “clump.qc” account acknowledged that the Maxwell video was a manipulation created using the AI tool Remaker.ai. They stated the clips were intended as humor and “ragebait,” rather than deliberate misinformation. The video was produced by face-swapping Maxwell’s likeness onto the footage. Notably, the Instagram post now carries Meta’s artificial intelligence warning label, which was absent when the video was initially shared.
