#FactCheck - "Viral Video Falsely Claimed as Evidence of Attacks in Bangladesh is False & Misleading”

Executive Summary:

An image has been spread on social media about the truck carrying money and gold coins impounded by Jharkhand Police that also during lok sabha elections in 2024. The Research Wing, CyberPeace has verified the image and found it to be generated using artificial intelligence. There are no credible news articles supporting claims about the police having made such a seizure in Jharkhand. The images were checked using AI image detection tools and proved to be AI made.  It is advised to share any image or content after verifying its authenticity. 

Claims:

The viral social media post depicts a truck intercepted by the Jharkhand Police during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.  It was claimed that the truck was filled with large amounts of cash and gold coins.

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Fact Check:

On receiving the posts, we started with keyword-search to find any relevant news articles related to this post. If such a big incident really happened it would have been covered by most of the media houses. We found no such similar articles. We have closely analysed the image to find any anomalies that are usually found in AI generated images. And found the same.   

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The texture of the tree in the image is found to be blended. Also, the shadow of the people seems to be odd, which makes it more suspicious and is a common mistake in most of the AI generated images. If we closely look at the right hand of the old man wearing white attire, it is clearly visible that the thumb finger is blended with his apparel. 

We then analysed the image in an AI image detection tool named ‘Hive Detector’. Hive Detector found the image  to be AI-generated.

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To validate the  AI fabrication, we checked with another AI image detection tool named ‘ContentAtScale AI detection’ and it detected the image as 82% AI. Generated.

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After validation of the viral post using AI detection tools, it is apparent that the claim is misleading and fake. 

Conclusion:

The viral image of the truck impounded by Jharkhand Police is found to be fake and misleading. The viral image is found to be AI-generated.  There has been no credible source that can support the claim made. Hence, the claim made is false and misleading. The Research Wing, CyberPeace previously debunked such AI-generated images with misleading claims. Netizens must verify such news that circulates in Social Media with bogus claims before sharing it further. 

• Claim: The photograph shows a truck intercepted by Jharkhand Police during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which was allegedly loaded with huge amounts of cash and gold coins.
• Claimed on: Facebook, Instagram, X (Formerly known as Twitter)
• Fact Check: Fake & Misleading

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Introduction 

In the interconnected world of social networking and the digital landscape, social media users have faced some issues like hacking. Hence there is a necessity to protect your personal information and data from scammers or hackers. In case your email or social media account gets hacked, there are mechanisms or steps you can utilise to recover your email or social media account. It is important to protect your email or social media accounts in order to protect your personal information and data on your account. It is always advisable to keep strong passwords to protect your account and enable two-factor authentication as an extra layer of protection. Hackers or bad actors can take control of your account, they can even change the linked mail ID or Mobile numbers to take full access to your account.

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Recent Incident

Recently, a US man's Facebook account was deleted or disabled by Facebook. He has sued Facebook and initiated a legal battle. He has contended that there was no violation of any terms and policy of the platform, and his account was disabled. In the first instance, he approached the platform. However, the platform neglected his issue then he filed a suit, where the court ordered Facebook's parent company, Meta, to pay $50,000 compensation, citing ignorance of the tech company. 

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Social media account recovery using the ‘Help’ Section

If your Facebook account has been disabled, when you log in to your account, you will see a text saying that your account is disabled. If you think that your account is disabled by mistake, in such a scenario, you can make a request to Facebook to ‘review’ its decision using the help centre section of the platform. To recover your social media account, you can go to the “Help” section of the platform where you can fix a login problem and also report any suspicious activity you have faced in your account. 

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Best practices to stay protected

1. Strong password: Use strong and unique passwords for your email and all social media accounts.
2. Privacy settings: You can utilise the privacy settings of the social media platform, where you can set privacy as to who can see your posts and who can see your contact information, and you can also keep your social media account private. You might have noticed a few accounts on which the user's name is unusual and isn’t one which you recognise. The account has few or no friends, posts, or visible account activity.
3. Avoid adding unknown users or strangers to your social networking accounts: Unknown users might be scammers who can steal your personal information from your social media profiles, and such bad actors can misuse that information to hack into your social media account. 
4. Report spam accounts or posts: If you encounter any spam post, spam account or inappropriate content, you can report such profile or post to the platform using the reporting centre. The platform will review the report and if it goes against the community guidelines or policy of the platform. Hence, recognise and report spam, inappropriate, and abusive content.
5. Be cautious of phishing scams: As a user, we encounter phishing emails or links, and phishing attacks can take place on social media as well. Hence, it is important that do not open any suspicious emails or links. On social media, ‘Quiz posts’ or ‘advertisement links’ may also contain phishing links, hence, do not open or click on such unauthenticated or suspicious links.

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Conclusion

We all use social media for connecting with people, sharing thoughts, and lots of other activities. For marketing or business, we use social media pages. Social media offers a convenient way to connect with a larger community. We also share our personal information on the platform. It becomes important to protect your personal information, your email and all your social media accounts from hackers or bad actors. Follow the best practices to stay safe, such as using strong passwords, two-factor authentication, etc. Hence contributing to keeping your social media accounts safe and secure.

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References:

• https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/07/11/facebook-wrongfully-deleted-his-account-he-sued-the-company-and-won
• https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recover-your-hacked-email-or-social-media-account

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Introduction: 

The G7 Summit is an international forum that includes member states from France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and the European Union (EU). The annual G7 meeting that is held every year was hosted by Japan this year in May 2023. It took place in Hiroshima. Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the major theme of this G7 summit. Key takeaways from this G7 summit highlight that leaders together focused on escalating the adoption of AI for beneficial use cases across the economy and the government and improving the governing structure to mitigate the potential risks of AI. 

Need for fair and responsible use of AI:

The G7 recognises that they really need to work together to ensure the responsible and fair use of AI to help establish technical standards for the same. Members of the G7 countries agreed to adopt an open and enabling environment for the development of AI technologies.  They also emphasized that AI regulations should be based on democratic values. G7 summit calls for the responsible use of AI. The ministers discussed the risks involved in AI technology programs like ChatGPT. They came up with an action plan for promoting responsible use of AI with human beings leading the efforts. 

Further Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US, and the EU) met virtually on 7 September 2023 and committed to creating ‘international guiding principles applicable for all AI actors’, and a code of conduct for organisations developing ‘advanced’ AI systems. 

What is HAP (Hiroshima AI Process)

Hiroshima AI Process (HAP) aims to establish trustworthy AI technical standards at the international level. The G7 agreed on creating a ministerial forum to prompt the fair use of AI. Hiroshima AI Process (HAP) is an effort by G7 to determine a way forward to regulate AI. The HAP establishes a forum for international discussions on inclusive AI governance and interoperability to achieve a common vision and goal of trustworthy AI at the global level.

The HAP will be operating in close connection with organisations including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI).

This Hiroshima AI Process (HAP) initiated at the Annual G7 Summit held in Hiroshima, Japan is a significant step towards regulating AI and the Hiroshima AI Process (HAP) is likely to conclude by December 2023.

G7 leaders emphasized fostering an environment where trustworthy AI systems are designed, developed and deployed for the common good worldwide. They advocated for international standards and interoperable tools for trustworthy AI that enable Innovation by creating a comprehensive policy framework, including overall guiding principles for all AI actors in the AI ecosystem.

Stressing upon fair use of advanced technologies:

The impact and misuse of generative AI was also discussed by the G7 leaders. The G7 members also stressed misinformation and disinformation in the realm of generative AI models. As they are capable of creating synthetic content such as deepfakes. In particular, they noted that the next generation of interactive generative media will leverage targeted influence content that is highly personalized, localized, and conversational. 

In the digital landscape, there is a rapid advancement of technologies such as generative 

Artificial Intelligence (AI), deepfake, machine learning, etc. Such technologies offer convenience to users in performing several tasks and are capable of assisting individuals and business entities. Since these technologies are easily accessible, cyber-criminals leverage AI tools and technologies for malicious activities, hence certain regulatory mechanisms at the global level will ensure and advocate for the ethical, reasonable and fair use of such advanced technologies. 

Conclusion: 

The G7 summit held in May 2023 focused on advanced international discussions on inclusive AI governance and interoperability to achieve a common vision and goal of trustworthy AI, in line with shared democratic values. AI governance has become a global issue, countries around the world are coming forward and advocating for the responsible and fair use of AI and influence on global AI governance and standards. It is significant to establish a regulatory framework that defines AI capabilities and identifies areas prone to misuse. And set forth reasonable technical standards while also fostering innovations. Hence overall prioritizing data privacy, integrity, and security in the evolving nature of advanced technologies. 

References:

• https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/07/3e39b82d-464d-403a-b6cb-dc0e1bdec642-230906_Ministerial-clean-Draft-Hiroshima-Ministers-Statement68.pdf
• https://www.g7hiroshima.go.jp/en/summit/about/
• https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/the-hiroshima-ai-process-for-global-ai-governance
• https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/hiroshima-ai-process-g7-calls-for-adoption-of-international-technical-standards-for-ai-382121-2023-05-20

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