‘National Public Holiday’ On June 6? No, Fake AI-Generated Reports Shared As Real News

Has the Central government declared a nationwide public holiday on June 6 (Friday)? Well, according to these viral reports, seen here and here, the unexpected purported declaration, apparently taken to support work-life balance and public wellness, means that schools, colleges, banks, and most offices across the country will remain closed for the day, effectively giving millions of Indians an extended weekend.

‘The announcement, issued through an official government notification, comes amid growing awareness about stress management, public health, and cultural observances. The holiday is applicable across government and private sectors, barring essential services,” read one of the reports, dated June 3, 2025, further listing out the essential transport services, online government facilities and emergency services that will still be running on the “national public holiday”.

Fact Check

Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “June 6 public holiday India”, which did not lead us to any credible news reports nor official government notification about such a surprise announcement of a national public holiday. However, we did come across multiple news reports, seen here and here, stating that banks in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi will be closed on Friday, June 6, 2025, for Bakrid, while on Saturday, June 7, 2025, banks across the country except Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Itanagar, Kochi, and Thiruvananthapuram will be closed for Eid al-Zuha. We looked up the RBI’s official holiday calendar, confirming the dates and that barring for select cities, June 7, 2025, was the designated bank holiday for Bakrid.  Also, none of these reports mentioned that there was a government holiday owing to work-life balance and public wellness.

We then looked up the holiday calendar, as per the circular issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, where we saw that there was no holiday marked on June 6, 2025, even as June 7, 2025, was marked as a gazetted holiday (public holiday officially declared by the government) on the occasion of Id-Ul-Zuha (Bakrid).

Newschecker noticed that the writer for one of the reports was one Ashish Rai, whose photo seemed like it was AI-generated owing to the glossy texture. We ran the photo past Hive Moderation, an AI-image detection tool, which stated it was 90.1% likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.

Also, we observed the generic phrases and vague descriptions in the write-ups, all signs pointing towards AI-generated text.

Article 1

Newschecker ran the article (https://haematocon2023.com/government-declares-national-public-holiday) past QuillBot, an AI-content detector, which stated 100% of the text is likely AI.  Plagiarism detection tool Copyleaks, too, said 100% of the text may be AI-generated, further proving that the report was not credible.

We also ran the viral article past Scam Detector, a major online tool for fraud prevention, which flagged the website as “Doubtful. Medium-Risk. Alert”, with a low trust score of 49.5/100.

“The Scam Detector website Validator gives haematocon2023.com a low-to-medium trust score on the platform: 49.5. It signals that the business could be defined by the following tags: Doubtful. Medium-Risk. Alert.. We are confident about our score as we also partner with other high-tech, fraud-prevention companies that found the same issues. So, why this low score? We came up with the 49.5 score based on 53 aggregated factors relevant to haematocon2023.com’s industry. The algorithm detected potential high-risk activity related to phishing, spamming, and other factors noted in the Doubtful. Medium-Risk. Alert. tags,” read the review.

Article 2

Newschecker ran the article (https://aerocoe.org.in/govt-declares-public-holiday-2025/) past QuillBot, an AI-content detector, which stated 93% of the text is likely AI.  Plagiarism detection tool Copyleaks said 97.6% of the text may be AI-generated, further proving that the report was not credible.

We also ran the viral article past Scam Detector, a major online tool for fraud prevention, which flagged the website as “Suspicious. Young. Untrustworthy.”, with a very low trust score of 5/100.

“The Scam Detector website Validator gives aerocoe.org.in one of the absolute lowest trust scores on the platform: 5. It signals that the business could be defined by the following tags: Suspicious. Young. Untrustworthy.. We are confident about our score as we also partner with other high-tech, fraud-prevention companies that found the same issues. So, why this low score? We came up with the 5 score based on 53 aggregated factors relevant to aerocoe.org.in’s industry. The algorithm detected high-risk activity related to phishing, spamming, and other factors noted in the Suspicious. Young. Untrustworthy. Tags,” read the review.

Not The First Time

Newschecker had already debunked a fake news item, claiming that the central government has announced free travel for senior citizens across trains, buses, metro services, and even domestic flights, finding the reports to be AI-generated.

Similarly, fake websites of government entities or educational institutions had also been set up to spread fake news regarding government schemes and projects, confusing readers. One such instance can be seen here, where a website posing to be that of an educational institution, falsely claimed that the government was planning to introduce an ‘’occupancy tax” for tenants. Another report by the same website claimed that UPI transactions would soon be taxed with GST, while another said that a new 4-day workweek was being considered.

We reached out to Karan Saini, a cybersecurity researcher, who said that these fake websites primarily intend to earn revenue from advertisements, further saying, “The sites are using AdSense from the looks of it. Generally, Google AdSense has rules for what sites get accepted into their program, where sites with low quality or inaccurate content are not accepted. This has been turned upside down with LLM’s being able to write text that appears high quality.”

 “If you come across any suspicious or misleading news, always verify it through official government websites or trusted sources before accepting it as true. As a general practice, it is better to consume content from sources you already know are trustworthy,” Saini told Newschecker, further stating that verifying the alleged authors as real was another helpful step.

Also Read: Did PM Modi Unveil New Financial Project After Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Rebuke’? No, Viral Video Is Deepfake

Conclusion

Fake AI-generated news reports stating that the government has declared a national public holiday on June 6 have gone viral, being shared as real news.

Source
Hive Moderation tool
Quillbot tool
Copyleaks tool
Scam Detector tool
Conversation with Karan Saini, a cybersecurity researcher