#FactCheck - False Claim of Hindu Sadhvi Marrying Muslim Man Debunked
Executive Summary:
A viral image circulating on social media claims to show a Hindu Sadhvi marrying a Muslim man; however, this claim is false. A thorough investigation by the Cyberpeace Research team found that the image has been digitally manipulated. The original photo, which was posted by Balmukund Acharya, a BJP MLA from Jaipur, on his official Facebook account in December 2023, he was posing with a Muslim man in his election office. The man wearing the Muslim skullcap is featured in several other photos on Acharya's Instagram account, where he expressed gratitude for the support from the Muslim community. Thus, the claimed image of a marriage between a Hindu Sadhvi and a Muslim man is digitally altered.
Claims:
An image circulating on social media claims to show a Hindu Sadhvi marrying a Muslim man.
Fact Check:
Upon receiving the posts, we reverse searched the image to find any credible sources. We found a photo posted by Balmukund Acharya Hathoj Dham on his facebook page on 6 December 2023.
This photo is digitally altered and posted on social media to mislead. We also found several different photos with the skullcap man where he was featured.
We also checked for any AI fabrication in the viral image. We checked using a detection tool named, “content@scale” AI Image detection. This tool found the image to be 95% AI Manipulated.
We also checked with another detection tool for further validation named, “isitai” image detection tool. It found the image to be 38.50% of AI content, which concludes to the fact that the image is manipulated and doesn’t support the claim made. Hence, the viral image is fake and misleading.
Conclusion:
The lack of credible source and the detection of AI manipulation in the image explains that the viral image claiming to show a Hindu Sadhvi marrying a Muslim man is false. It has been digitally altered. The original image features BJP MLA Balmukund Acharya posing with a Muslim man, and there is no evidence of the claimed marriage.
- Claim: An image circulating on social media claims to show a Hindu Sadhvi marrying a Muslim man.
- Claimed on: X (Formerly known as Twitter)
- Fact Check: Fake & 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
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Introduction
Misinformation is a major issue in the AI age, exacerbated by the broad adoption of AI technologies. The misuse of deepfakes, bots, and content-generating algorithms have made it simpler for bad actors to propagate misinformation on a large scale. These technologies are capable of creating manipulative audio/video content, propagate political propaganda, defame individuals, or incite societal unrest. AI-powered bots may flood internet platforms with false information, swaying public opinion in subtle ways. The spread of misinformation endangers democracy, public health, and social order. It has the potential to affect voter sentiments, erode faith in the election process, and even spark violence. Addressing misinformation includes expanding digital literacy, strengthening platform detection capabilities, incorporating regulatory checks, and removing incorrect information.
AI's Role in Misinformation Creation
AI's growth in its capabilities to generate content have grown exponentially in recent years. Legitimate uses or purposes of AI many-a-times take a backseat and result in the exploitation of content that already exists on the internet. One of the main examples of misinformation flooding the internet is when AI-powered bots flood social media platforms with fake news at a scale and speed that makes it impossible for humans to track and figure out whether the same is true or false.
The netizens in India are greatly influenced by viral content on social media. AI-generated misinformation can have particularly negative consequences. Being literate in the traditional sense of the word does not automatically guarantee one the ability to parse through the nuances of social media content authenticity and impact. Literacy, be it social media literacy or internet literacy, is under attack and one of the main contributors to this is the rampant rise of AI-generated misinformation. Some of the most common examples of misinformation that can be found are related to elections, public health, and communal issues. These issues have one common factor that connects them, which is that they evoke strong emotions in people and as such can go viral very quickly and influence social behaviour, to the extent that they may lead to social unrest, political instability and even violence. Such developments lead to public mistrust in the authorities and institutions, which is dangerous in any economy, but even more so in a country like India which is home to a very large population comprising a diverse range of identity groups.
Misinformation and Gen AI
Generative AI (GAI) is a powerful tool that allows individuals to create massive amounts of realistic-seeming content, including imitating real people's voices and creating photos and videos that are indistinguishable from reality. Advanced deepfake technology blurs the line between authentic and fake. However, when used smartly, GAI is also capable of providing a greater number of content consumers with trustworthy information, counteracting misinformation.
Generative AI (GAI) is a technology that has entered the realm of autonomous content production and language creation, which is linked to the issue of misinformation. It is often difficult to determine if content originates from humans or machines and if we can trust what we read, see, or hear. This has led to media users becoming more confused about their relationship with media platforms and content and highlighted the need for a change in traditional journalistic principles.
We have seen a number of different examples of GAI in action in recent times, from fully AI-generated fake news websites to fake Joe Biden robocalls telling the Democrats in the U.S. not to vote. The consequences of such content and the impact it could have on life as we know it are almost too vast to even comprehend at present. If our ability to identify reality is quickly fading, how will we make critical decisions or navigate the digital landscape safely? As such, the safe and ethical use and applications of this technology needs to be a top global priority.
Challenges for Policymakers
AI's ability to generate anonymous content makes it difficult to hold perpetrators accountable due to the massive amount of data generated. The decentralised nature of the internet further complicates regulation efforts, as misinformation can spread across multiple platforms and jurisdictions. Balancing the need to protect the freedom of speech and expression with the need to combat misinformation is a challenge. Over-regulation could stifle legitimate discourse, while under-regulation could allow misinformation to propagate unchecked. India's multilingual population adds more layers to already-complex issue, as AI-generated misinformation is tailored to different languages and cultural contexts, making it harder to detect and counter. Therefore, developing strategies catering to the multilingual population is necessary.
Potential Solutions
To effectively combat AI-generated misinformation in India, an approach that is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional is essential. Some potential solutions are as follows:
- Developing a framework that is specific in its application to address AI-generated content. It should include stricter penalties for the originator and spreader and dissemination of fake content in proportionality to its consequences. The framework should establish clear and concise guidelines for social media platforms to ensure that proactive measures are taken to detect and remove AI-generated misinformation.
- Investing in tools that are driven by AI for customised detection and flagging of misinformation in real time. This can help in identifying deepfakes, manipulated images, and other forms of AI-generated content.
- The primary aim should be to encourage different collaborations between tech companies, cyber security orgnisations, academic institutions and government agencies to develop solutions for combating misinformation.
- Digital literacy programs will empower individuals by training them to evaluate online content. Educational programs in schools and communities teach critical thinking and media literacy skills, enabling individuals to better discern between real and fake content.
Conclusion
AI-generated misinformation presents a significant threat to India, and it is safe to say that the risks posed are at scale with the rapid rate at which the nation is developing technologically. As the country moves towards greater digital literacy and unprecedented mobile technology adoption, one must be cognizant of the fact that even a single piece of misinformation can quickly and deeply reach and influence a large portion of the population. Indian policymakers need to rise to the challenge of AI-generated misinformation and counteract it by developing comprehensive strategies that not only focus on regulation and technological innovation but also encourage public education. AI technologies are misused by bad actors to create hyper-realistic fake content including deepfakes and fabricated news stories, which can be extremely hard to distinguish from the truth. The battle against misinformation is complex and ongoing, but by developing and deploying the right policies, tools, digital defense frameworks and other mechanisms, we can navigate these challenges and safeguard the online information landscape.
References:
- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/how-to/how-ai-powered-tools-deepfakes-pose-a-misinformation-challenge-for-internet-users/articleshow/98770592.cms?from=mdr
- https://www.dw.com/en/india-ai-driven-political-messaging-raises-ethical-dilemma/a-69172400
- https://pure.rug.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/975865684/proceedings.pdf#page=62
Executive Summary:
A viral message is circulating claiming the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has banned the use of black ink for writing cheques. This information is incorrect. The RBI has not issued any such directive, and cheques written in black ink remain valid and acceptable.
Claim:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued new guidelines prohibiting using black ink for writing cheques. As per the claimed directive, cheques must now be written exclusively in blue or green ink.
Fact Check:
Upon thorough verification, it has been confirmed that the claim regarding the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issuing a directive banning the use of black ink for writing cheques is entirely false. No such notification, guideline, or instruction has been released by the RBI in this regard. Cheques written in black ink remain valid, and the public is advised to disregard such unverified messages and rely only on official communications for accurate information.
As stated by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), this claim is false The Reserve Bank of India has not prescribed specific ink colors to be used for writing cheques. There is a mention of the color of ink to be used in point number 8, which discusses the care customers should take while writing cheques.
Conclusion:
The claim that the Reserve Bank of India has banned the use of black ink for writing cheques is completely false. No such directive, rule, or guideline has been issued by the RBI. Cheques written in black ink are valid and acceptable. The RBI has not prescribed any specific ink color for writing cheques, and the public is advised to disregard unverified messages. While general precautions for filling out cheques are mentioned in RBI advisories, there is no restriction on the color of the ink. Always refer to official sources for accurate information.
- Claim: The new RBI ink guidelines are mandatory from a specified date.
- Claimed On: Social Media
- Fact Check: False and Misleading
