A video made up of AI generated visuals claiming to show massive rallies in Manipur of protesters wanting peace and end to the ethnic clashes in the state, is circulating on social media.
The claim, along with the visuals, also blamed Indian media for not covering such protests in the north-eastern state.
BOOM found that the visuals are not real. We identified several discrepancies in the footage and used an AI detection tool, which confirmed that the images were generated by artificial intelligence.
Manipur has recently experienced violent ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities, which have claimed hundreds of lives over the past year. According to a report from September 18, 2024 the ongoing dialogues are being held with both the Meitei and Kuki communities to restore peace in the region. Additionally, two battalions of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and 200 companies of central police forces have been deployed in Manipur.
The 16-second video features five distinct visuals of a massive rally, with people holding different types of flags. Each visual has banners with different texts including 'Manipur Wants Peace', 'Rally For Peace' written on them. The video has also been overlaid with an audio of sloganeering from a protest site.
An X user shared the video and wrote, "The situation in Manipur has significantly worsened, with no coverage from Indian media."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
BOOM first observed that the footage consists of five different scenes, each containing multiple discrepancies typically found in AI-generated visuals.
Below are some of the key discrepancies that are rarely seen in real visuals.
Incomplete Flags and Distorted Buildings
We went through the visuals and observed several distorted buildings that do not resemble real photographs. Additionally, some flags in the visuals appeared incomplete.
These discrepancies are commonly found in AI-generated images, especially when creating depth maps and converting them into depth animations.
Furthermore, we found that an Assamese digital creator, Manab Jyoti Gogoi, posted the same video on his verified Instagram profile on February 1, 2024, stating that all the images shown in the video were generated using artificial intelligence.
We also tested the video using Hive Moderation, an AI detection tool, for further verification. The results indicated that there is a 99.9% likelihood that the visuals contain AI-generated or deepfake content.
