A video purportedly showing Randhir Jaiswal, official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), responding to a reporter’s question about eating snacks during the BRICS Summit is an AI-manipulated deepfake.
BOOM found that the original press conference does not show any such interaction between Jaiswal and the reporters. AI detection tools also flagged the viral video as manipulated.
Political jibes and counter-reactions emerged after the MEA official was trolled online over the alleged snacking during the BRICS Summit. While Congress leader Srinivas BV took a swipe at Jaiswal by referring to the vegetarian BRICS dinner menu, other politicians, including former MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, backed the MEA spokesperson amid the online trolling.
The Claim
The video is being shared with the caption, "Indian Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was grilled by a reporter for eating nuts during BRICS Summit. The Nutty Spokesperson".
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
What We Found: Viral Video Is A Deepfake
1. The original press conference: We first broke the video into keyframes and found an X post by a journalist carrying visuals from a press conference by Jaiswal that took place on September 15, 2026. The visuals in the X post matched those in the viral video.
Taking a cue from this, we found the livestream of the press conference on the Ministry of External Affairs, India’s official YouTube channel, dated September 15. However, we found no such interaction between Jaiswal and the reporters present at the press conference.
2. AI Detector Tools Flag Manipulation: Taking a cue, we tested the video using Deepfake-o-Meter, an AI detection tool developed by the University at Buffalo. The tool analysed the video using multiple AI detection models and concluded that it had been manipulated using AI. We further tested the audio from the video using Resemble AI’s audio detection tool, which also confirmed that the audio was fake.
The MEA also flagged posts carrying the deepfake video and warned social media users about such fake videos.