#FactCheck - AI-Generated Video Falsely Linked to Protests in Iran
Amid protests against rising inflation in Iran, a video is being widely shared on social media showing people gathering on streets at night while using mobile phone flashlights. The video is being circulated with the claim that it shows recent protests in Iran. Cyber Peace Foundation’s research found that the video being shared as visuals from the ongoing protests in Iran is not real. Our investigation revealed that the viral video is AI-generated and has no connection with actual events on the ground.
Claim
On January 11, 2026, an Instagram user shared the video with a caption written in Spanish. The Hindi translation of the caption reads: “The Iranian government shut down the lights of protesters, but that did not stop them from remaining on the streets demanding that the Ayatollahs step down from power.”The post link, its archived version, and screenshots can be seen below: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTXqzayjqFz/
FactCheck:
To verify the claim, we extracted keyframes from the viral video and conducted a Google reverse image search.During this process, we found the same video uploaded on Instagram on January 11, 2026. In that post, the user explicitly stated that the video was created using AI. The caption reads that the streetlights were turned off to hide the scale of protesters, but people used their phone lights to show their presence, adding:
“I created this video using AI, inspired by tonight’s protests (January 10, 2026) in Tehran, Iran.” Link to the post and screenshot can be seen below: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTWXsHajNvl/
To further verify the authenticity of the video, we scanned it using multiple AI detection tools.Hive Moderation flagged the video as 97 percent AI-generated.
We also scanned the video using another AI detection tool, Wasitai, which likewise identified the video as AI-generated.
Conclusion
Our investigation confirms that the video being shared as footage from protests in Iran is not real. The viral video has been created using artificial intelligence and is being falsely linked to the ongoing protests. The claim circulating on social media is false and misleading.
Related Blogs
Executive Summary:
A video clip being circulated on social media allegedly shows the Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu, the TV anchor Anjana Om Kashyap and the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Shri Yogi Adityanath promoting a medicine for diabetes. While The CyberPeace Research Team did a thorough investigation, the claim was found to be not true. The video was digitally edited, with original footage of the heavy weight persons being altered to falsely suggest their endorsement of the medication. Specific discrepancies were found in the lip movements and context of the clips which indicated AI Manipulation. Additionally, the distinguished persons featured in the video were actually discussing unrelated topics in their original footage. Therefore, the claim that the video shows endorsements of a diabetes drug by such heavy weights is debunked. The conclusion drawn from the analysis is that the video is an AI creation and does not reflect any genuine promotion. Furthermore, it's also detected by AI voice detection tools.
Claims:
A video making the rounds on social media purporting to show the Hon'ble President of India, Smt. Draupadi Murmu, TV anchor Anjana Om Kashyap, and Hon'ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath giving their endorsement to a diabetes medicine.
Fact Check:
Upon receiving the post we carefully watched the video and certainly found some discrepancies between lip synchronization and the word that we can hear. Also the voice of Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath seems to be suspicious which clearly indicates some sign of fabrication. In the video, we can hear Hon'ble President of India Smt. Droupadi Murmu endorses a medicine that cured her diabetes. We then divided the video into keyframes, and reverse-searched one of the frames of the video. We landed on a video uploaded by Aaj Tak on their official YouTube Channel.
We found something similar to the same viral video, we can see the courtesy written as Sansad TV. Taking a cue from this we did some keyword searches and found another video uploaded by the YouTube Channel Sansad TV. In this video, we found no mention of any diabetes medicine. It was actually the Swearing in Ceremony of the Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu.
In the second part, there was a man addressed as Dr. Abhinash Mishra who allegedly invented the medicine that cures diabetes. We reverse-searched the image of that person and landed at a CNBC news website where the same face was identified as Dr Atul Gawande who is a professor at Harvard School of Public Health. We watched the video and found no sign of endorsing or talking about any diabetes medicine he invented.
We also extracted the audio from the viral video and analyzed it using the AI audio detection tool named Eleven Labs, which found the audio very likely to be created using the AI Voice generation tool with the probability of 98%.
Hence, the Claim made in the viral video is false and misleading. The Video is digitally edited using different clips and the audio is generated using the AI Voice creation tool to mislead netizens. It is worth noting that we have previously debunked such voice-altered news with bogus claims.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the viral video claiming that Hon'ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath promoted a diabetes medicine that cured their diabetes, is found to be false. Upon thorough investigation it was found that the video is digitally edited from different clips, the clip of Hon'ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu is taken from the clip of Oath Taking Ceremony of 15th President of India and the claimed doctor Abhinash Mishra whose video was found in CNBC News Outlet. The real name of the person is Dr. Atul Gawande who is a professor at Harvard School of Public Health. Online users must be careful while receiving such posts and should verify before sharing them with others.
Claim: A video is being circulated on social media claiming to show distinguished individuals promoting a particular medicine for diabetes treatment.
Claimed on: Facebook
Fact Check: Fake & Misleading
Introduction
The increase in consumer demands has resulted in a sharp increase in digital financing in India. As a result, the reputation of the digital lending sector has been impacted, as bad actors increasingly deploy illicit lending platforms such as fraudulent loans and trading apps. As millions of Indians download fast loan applications to help them meet their financial ends, the fraudulent apps result in cyber crimes including financial fraud. Consumers need to be vigilant of dubious trading or loan applications as bad actors frequently use illegitimate apps to trick victims by advertising limited-period offers and applying pressure.
Recently the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) led handel CyberDost has issued a cybercrime alert against the ‘CashExpand-U’ finance assistant app, which has been now removed from the Google Play Store. The app was found to be associated with hostile foreign entities, and the app had made it easier to raise small loans. However, such loan apps are seldom credible and may compromise financial information.
Raising cases of Fraudulent Loan Apps
The finance minister had stated that the government is constantly engaged with the Reserve Bank of India and other regulators and stakeholders to control fraudulent loan apps. In FY23, there were 1,062 complaints against such apps, the Finance Minister shared during a Lok Sabha session. Google removed almost 134 fake apps from the Play Store in a single week in September 2023 after multiple complaints were registered against such apps. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had also issued regulatory guidelines on digital lending in April 2023 to bring transparency in the digital loan space.
CyberPeace Policy Wing Advisory for Users
- Be cautious of App Permissions
Fake lending apps collect data by fraudulently taking numerous app permissions from consumers and misusing them later. The users must effectively manage their app permissions to avoid denying any extra permissions such as access to contacts, location, and photos. This is because fraudulent digital lenders access users' personal data to extort additional money even after loan repayment.
- Practice Due Diligence
Consumers must exercise care & caution before applying for a loan from digital lending platforms. Before applying for a loan or downloading any such apps, consumers must conduct due diligence by verifying the app's name, rating, reviews, physical address, and contact information. Always double-verify the paperwork before signing any agreement or contract. Always apply for loans from RBI-approved and compliant banking and financial services providers.
- Download from Official Sources
To avoid downloading counterfeit apps, only download lending apps from official stores like Google Play Store or Apple App Store, and avoid downloading apps from web links sent via SMS, email, or social media, even if shared by your known persons.
- Be sceptical of too-good-to-be-true offerings
Be cautious of deals that seem too good to be true, like hassle-free easy loans as they can be fraudulent. If an offer seems too good to be true, it might be a red flag. Hence always conduct your own research to verify the lender and avoid making hasty decisions.
- Reporting Mechanism
In case of facing a scam by such fraudulent apps, victims can file a complaint with the ‘National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal’ or Cyber Crime Helpline ‘1930’, or they can also contact us at CyberPeace Helpline +919570000066 and helpline@cyberpeace.net to get assistance in reporting their cases.
Final Words
Illegitimate loan/trading apps have been raising concerns by defrauding innocent consumers who seek financial assistance. The Center has recently warned against the CashExpand-U app, which has been now removed from the Google Play Store. Users are advised to exercise due care and caution while downloading loan apps and applying for loans to prevent any potential scams. keep up to date with news from concerned authorities about common scams and fraudulent practices in the lending space and stay safe in the online world.
References:
- https://www.livemint.com/news/beware-govt-issues-cybercrime-alert-against-loan-app-cashexpand-u-finance-assistant-11720338996430.html
- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/government-has-issued-an-important-warning-for-this-loan-app/articleshow/111541577.cms
Executive Summary:
In the age of virtuality, misinformation and misleading techniques shape the macula of the internet, and these threaten human safety and well-being. Recently, an alarming fake information has surfaced, intended to provide a fake Government subsidy scheme with the name of Indian Post. This serves criminals, who attack people's weaknesses, laying them off with proposals of receiving help in exchange for info. In this informative blog, we take a deep dive into one of the common schemes of fraud during this time. We will go through the stages involved which illustrates how one is deceived and offer practical tips to avoid the fall.
Introduction:
Digital communication reaches individuals faster, and as a result, misinformation and mails have accelerated their spread globally. People, therefore, are susceptible to online scams as they add credibility to phenomena. In India, the recently increased fake news draws its target with the deceptive claims of being a subsidy from the Government mainly through the Indian post. These fraudulent schemes frequently are spread via social networks and messaging platforms, influence trust of the individual’s in respectable establishments to establish fraud and collect private data.
Understanding the Claim:
There is a claim circulating on the behalf of the Government at the national level of a great subsidy of $1066 for deserving residents. The individual will be benefited with the subsidy when they complete the questionnaire they have received through social media. The questionnaire may have been designed to steal the individual’s confidential information by way of taking advantage of naivety and carelessness.
The Deceptive Journey Unveiled:
Bogus Offer Presentation: The scheme often appeals to people, by providing a misleading message or a commercial purposely targeted at convincing them to act immediately by instilling the sense of an urgent need. Such messages usually combine the mood of persuasion and highly evaluative material to create an illusion of being authentic.
Questionnaire Requirement: After the visitors land on attractive content material they are directed to fill in the questionnaire which is supposedly required for processing the economic assistance. This questionnaire requests for non private information in their nature.
False Sense of Urgency: Simultaneously, in addition to the stress-causing factor of it being a fake news, even the false deadline may be brought out to push in the technique of compliance. This data collection is intended to put people under pressure and influence them to make the information transfer that immediate without thorough examination.
Data Harvesting Tactics: Despite the financial help actually serving, you might be unaware but lies beneath it is a vile motive, data harvesting. The collection of facts through questionnaires may become something priceless for scammers that they can use for a good while to profit from identity theft, financial crimes and other malicious means.
Analysis Highlights:
- It is important to note that at this particular point, there has not been any official declaration or a proper confirmation of an offer made by the India Post or from the Government. So, people must be very careful when encountering such messages because they are often employed as lures in phishing attacks or misinformation campaigns. Before engaging or transmitting such claims, it is always advisable to authenticate the information from trustworthy sources in order to protect oneself online and prevent the spread of wrongful information
- The campaign is hosted on a third party domain instead of any official Government Website, this raised suspicion. Also the domain has been registered in very recent times.
- Domain Name: ccn-web[.]buzz
- Registry Domain ID: D6073D14AF8D9418BBB6ADE18009D6866-GDREG
- Registrar WHOIS Server: whois[.]namesilo[.]com
- Registrar URL: www[.]namesilo[.]com
- Updated Date: 2024-02-27T06:17:21Z
- Creation Date: 2024-02-11T03:23:08Z
- Registry Expiry Date: 2025-02-11T03:23:08Z
- Registrar: NameSilo, LLC
- Name Server: tegan[.]ns[.]cloudflare[.]com
- Name Server: nikon[.]ns[.]cloudflare[.]com
Note: Cybercriminal used Cloudflare technology to mask the actual IP address of the fraudulent website.
CyberPeace Advisory:
Verification and Vigilance: It makes complete sense in this case that you should be cautious and skeptical. Do not fall prey to this criminal act. Examine the arguments made and the facts provided by either party and consult credible sources before disclosures are made.
Official Channels: Governments usually invoke the use of reliable channels which can as well be by disseminating subsidies and assistance programs through official websites and the legal channels. Take caution for schemes that are not following the protocols previously established.
Educational Awareness: Providing awareness through education and consciousness about on-line scams and the approaches which are fraudulent has to be considered a primary requirement. Through empowering individuals with capabilities and targets we, as a collective, can be armed with information that will prevent erroneous scheme spreading.
Reporting and Action: In a case of mission suspicious and fraudulent images, let them understand immediately by making the authorities and necessary organizations alert. Your swift actions do not only protect yourself but also help others avoid the costs of related security compromises.
Conclusion:
The rise of the ‘Indian Post Countrywide - government subsidy fake news’ poses a stern warning of the present time that the dangers within the virtual ecosystem are. The art of being wise and sharp in terms of scams always reminds us to show a quick reaction to the hacks and try to do the things that we should identify as per the CyberPeace advisories; thereby, we will contribute to a safer Cyberspace for everyone. Likewise, the ability to critically judge, and remain alert, is important to help defeat the variety of tricks offenders use to mislead you online.
