Authors
Zakariya has an experience of working for Magazines, Newspapers and News Portals. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with Network18’s Urdu channel. Zakariya completed his post-graduation in Mass Communication & Journalism from Lucknow University.
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
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
Video shows a newly discovered animal species, a cow-faced seal.
Newschecker received the video on our WhatsApp tipline (+91-9999499044) requesting to be fact checked.
Fact
A keyword search for “cow-faced seal” on Google did not yield any credible reports on the discovery of such a marine species.
We then looked up the keyframes of the viral footage on Google lens which yielded a TikTok post by user ‘King.Efren.’ We accessed the site using VPN. The post carried the same video of the alleged new species of seal.
On skimming through the account, we found multiple such videos showing such videos on non-existent animal species such as a pig-faced fish, tiger-faced fish and hen-faced dog among others. Notably, multiple users in the comment sections of such posts praised the editing skills of the user.
Newschecker has reached out to the TikTok user King.Efren, and the copy will be updated upon receiving their comments.
We then reached out to the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), of The Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), of which Newschecker is a part to know more about the video. The existing AI detection tools only recognise human faces, we were told. However, it was found that footage was created using the prompt-to- AI generator.
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Furthermore, a person in the background is seen with three feet. We found another video of a similar animal with a clear disclaimer that it was generated using AI.
We also looked up the video on DeepFake Detector website that showed that the footage is “likely a deepfake.”
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Hence, the video does not show an actual animal species but was created using AI tools.
Result: False
Sources
TikTok Post By King.Efren
DAU Analysis
Newschecker Analysis
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Authors
Zakariya has an experience of working for Magazines, Newspapers and News Portals. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with Network18’s Urdu channel. Zakariya completed his post-graduation in Mass Communication & Journalism from Lucknow University.
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
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.
