Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
Syrian prisoner being released from his underground cell in the infamous Sednaya jail.
Fact
Viral visuals are AI-generated
A screengrab of a purported video showing an inmate allegedly released from the notorious Sednaya Prison that was used by the ousted Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria to lock up political dissidents, is currently doing the rounds of social media. According to the posts, the prisoner, purportedly one among the thousands who had disappeared during the 13-year civil war or the Assads’ half-century rule and were imprisoned in underground cells, was seeing sunlight after over a decade. The archived version of the post can be seen here.
The image appears to be a screengrab of a TikTok video, showing the prisoner crawling out of his cell, which has also gone viral.
Fact Check
Newschecker noticed the lack of detail, the fuzzy quality of the image and video, along with the unnatural movements, all suggesting that the visuals were AI-generated.
We next ran the video past TrueMedia, an AI-content detection tool, which detected “some evidence of manipulation”.
Newschecker traced the viral five-second video to the TikTok account of @sanzaruu, who uploaded the video on December 4, a few days before Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad fled from Damascus when rebel groups entered the capital on December 8. The creator has clearly labelled the video as AI-generated, which confirmed that the viral video and image are digitally created. We saw that the content creator, whose bio reads, “Yes, everything is AI, c’mon, regularly uploads AI-generated videos to his account.”
Also Read: Viral Images Of Aishwarya Rai And London-Based Businessman Are Edited
Conclusion
AI-generated video of Syrian prisoner being released from Sednaya jail is being shared as real.
Result: Altered Media
Source
TrueMedia analysis
TikTok post, @sanzaruu, December 4, 2024
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
