After the electoral win of Zohran Mamdani as the mayor of New York City, a purported protest video has been shared on social media with a false claim that it shows the Muslim community demanding that Arabic be made the official language of New York.
BOOM tested the video on multiple AI detector tools and was able to confirm that it was created with the help of artificial intelligence.
In a historic win, Zohran Mamdani, born to Indian filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, has been elected as New York’s first Muslim mayor. Mamdani’s win comes after he campaigned for several social policies such as universal childcare and free city buses, while facing well-funded efforts by US billionaires who opposed him.
The Claim
An X handle shared the video with the Hindi caption that translates to, "As soon as a Muslim mayor is elected in New York. "We don't need English. Now New York is the Middle East. Arabic will be spoken here." This is also necessary so that the whites come to their senses".
(Original Text in Hindi: न्यूयार्क मे मुस्लिम मेयर बनते ही "हमें अंग्रेजी नहीं चाहिए़। अब न्यूयॉर्क मिडिल ईस्ट का है। यहां अरबी बोली जाएगी।" ये होना भी जरूरी है तभी गोरों को अक्ल आयेगी)
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What We Found: Viral Video Is AI Generated
1. Inconsistencies In The Video: We ran a related keyword search but did not find any credible news report about a protest calling for Arabic to be made the official language in New York. We then examined the clip closely and noticed several inconsistencies that are often seen in AI generated content. For example, the hands holding the placards in the background look distorted, and the Palestinian flag shown in the clip also differs from the original Palestinian flag.
2. AI Tools Detect Manipulation: To verify further, we checked the clip using the AI detection tool Hive Moderation. The tool showed a 99.9 percent chance that the video was AI generated or a deepfake.
We also tested the audio using the deepfake voice detector Hiya. The tool gave the voice an authenticity score of 19 out of 100, which points to a strong possibility of manipulation.