A digitally altered video is being shared on social media falsely claiming to show General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), stating that Arunachal Pradesh should be given to China to stop Beijing from supporting Pakistan.
BOOM found that the video contains an overlaid AI voice track to make the false claim. In the original speech taken from General Dwivedi’s address on November 24, he did not mention China, Pakistan, or Arunachal Pradesh. The Army Chief was speaking at the commissioning ceremony of INS Mahe, India’s first Mahe-class anti-submarine warfare shallow-water craft.
The Claim: Video shows COAS proposing to give Arunachal to China in order to appease China to stop supporting Pakistan
The video was shared on X by the handle Ahmed Wazir (@AhmedWazir89242), with the caption, "India’s Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi comes with an out of the box solution to fight Pakistan Army. He has proposed giving Arunachal to China in order to appease China to stop supporting Pakistan."
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What We Found:
1) AI Deepfake Voice Detection Tool Results:
We ran the 54-second video through two AI deepfake voice detection tools: Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector and DeepFake-O-Meter by UB Media Forensics Lab. Both tools results confirmed that the voice in the viral video was overlaid onto the original footage.
The Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector gave the voice an authenticity score of 4 /100, indicating it’s likely a deepfake, while the DeepFake-O-Meter by UB Media Forensics Lab at the University at Buffalo, confirmed the use of AI, with one of its result giving it a Fake probability of 99.99%.
2) Original Video
We checked the original byte by General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of Army Staff, from November 24, where he delivered a speech at the commissioning ceremony of INS Mahe, India’s first Mahe-class anti-submarine warfare shallow-water craft.
In the speech, the COAS spoke about India’s naval capabilities, the significance of modern Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platforms, and maritime security. He does not mention China, Pakistan, or Arunachal Pradesh.