Fact Check: AI-generated, staged videos overflow amid floods in Assam
Distressingly graphic videos allegedly showing survivors, devastation, and dead bodies are circulating widely online. None of these videos has anything to do with the Assam floods.
India Today Fact Check
This video is AI-generated.
As Assam faces its worst flooding in years, social media is seeing a deluge of fake videos of it. The floods have killed at least 68 people. In this story, we shall talk about three such videos — two synthetic, one staged.
DUCK TALES
Claim: This video shows people stranded on the roofs of their submerged houses. Ducks can also be seen swimming in the muddy floodwaters. Its archive can be viewed here.
Fact: We found several oddities in the video, telltale of synthetic media. People’s limbs look unnatural, with some disappearing as they move. The ducks swim without creating ripples. As one of the houses collapses and gets submerged, the person sitting on its roof makes no effort to save himself and keeps sitting in the same position. We tested this video using Nvidia’s synthetic video detector, which identified it as AI-generated with a synthetic score of 77 per cent.
LOOK AT THE CHILD’S FEET
Claim: This video shows a girl gasping in fear as she watches a family drowning in a flood, and is being shared in the backdrop of the Assam floods. Its archive can be accessed here.
Fact: This video also exhibits several similar inconsistencies: unnatural camera movement and anomalies in the building structure. In one of the frames, the child’s feet merge with the mother’s body.
As per Nvidia’s synthetic video detector, this video is AI-generated with a synthetic score of 42.2 per cent.
IT’S ALL STAGED
Claim: Another video allegedly shows the corpses of several women who died in the floods.
Fact: In the viral video, we observed the watermark of an Instagram account called “@simransk944”. This account belongs to a content creator called Simran SK, who shared this video on July 5 with the laughter emoji. We found that this account regularly posts dramatic staged videos similar to the viral video. This makes it clear that this video does not show the Assam floods.
As Assam faces its worst flooding in years, social media is seeing a deluge of fake videos of it. The floods have killed at least 68 people. In this story, we shall talk about three such videos — two synthetic, one staged.
DUCK TALES
Claim: This video shows people stranded on the roofs of their submerged houses. Ducks can also be seen swimming in the muddy floodwaters. Its archive can be viewed here.
Fact: We found several oddities in the video, telltale of synthetic media. People’s limbs look unnatural, with some disappearing as they move. The ducks swim without creating ripples. As one of the houses collapses and gets submerged, the person sitting on its roof makes no effort to save himself and keeps sitting in the same position. We tested this video using Nvidia’s synthetic video detector, which identified it as AI-generated with a synthetic score of 77 per cent.
LOOK AT THE CHILD’S FEET
Claim: This video shows a girl gasping in fear as she watches a family drowning in a flood, and is being shared in the backdrop of the Assam floods. Its archive can be accessed here.
Fact: This video also exhibits several similar inconsistencies: unnatural camera movement and anomalies in the building structure. In one of the frames, the child’s feet merge with the mother’s body.
As per Nvidia’s synthetic video detector, this video is AI-generated with a synthetic score of 42.2 per cent.
IT’S ALL STAGED
Claim: Another video allegedly shows the corpses of several women who died in the floods.
Fact: In the viral video, we observed the watermark of an Instagram account called “@simransk944”. This account belongs to a content creator called Simran SK, who shared this video on July 5 with the laughter emoji. We found that this account regularly posts dramatic staged videos similar to the viral video. This makes it clear that this video does not show the Assam floods.
As Assam faces its worst flooding in years, social media is seeing a deluge of fake videos of it. The floods have killed at least 68 people. In this story, we shall talk about three such videos — two synthetic, one staged.
DUCK TALES
Claim: This video shows people stranded on the roofs of their submerged houses. Ducks can also be seen swimming in the muddy floodwaters. Its archive can be viewed here.
Fact: We found several oddities in the video, telltale of synthetic media. People’s limbs look unnatural, with some disappearing as they move. The ducks swim without creating ripples. As one of the houses collapses and gets submerged, the person sitting on its roof makes no effort to save himself and keeps sitting in the same position. We tested this video using Nvidia’s synthetic video detector, which identified it as AI-generated with a synthetic score of 77 per cent.
LOOK AT THE CHILD’S FEET
Claim: This video shows a girl gasping in fear as she watches a family drowning in a flood, and is being shared in the backdrop of the Assam floods. Its archive can be accessed here.
Fact: This video also exhibits several similar inconsistencies: unnatural camera movement and anomalies in the building structure. In one of the frames, the child’s feet merge with the mother’s body.
As per Nvidia’s synthetic video detector, this video is AI-generated with a synthetic score of 42.2 per cent.
IT’S ALL STAGED
Claim: Another video allegedly shows the corpses of several women who died in the floods.
Fact: In the viral video, we observed the watermark of an Instagram account called “@simransk944”. This account belongs to a content creator called Simran SK, who shared this video on July 5 with the laughter emoji. We found that this account regularly posts dramatic staged videos similar to the viral video. This makes it clear that this video does not show the Assam floods.