#FactCheck: Misleading Claim Amid West Asia Conflict: Old Yemen Video Shared as Iran’s Attack on Tel Aviv
Executive Summary
Amid the ongoing tensions in West Asia between the United States–Israel alliance and Iran since February 28, 2026, a video is rapidly going viral on social media. The clip shows buildings engulfed in flames and thick plumes of smoke following an attack. Several users are sharing it with the claim that it depicts Iran’s recent strike on Tel Aviv, Israel. However, an research by the CyberPeace found the claim to be misleading. The viral video is actually from August 2025, when Israel carried out airstrikes in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. It has no connection to the current conflict.
Claim:
An Instagram user ‘iran_.news24’ posted the video on March 27, 2026, with the caption: “Iran has turned Israel’s largest city Tel Aviv into hell—fears that 200,000 people have died in the war so far.”
Fact Check
To verify the viral claim, keyframes of the video were extracted and searched using Google Lens. The same video was found posted on August 24, 2025, by a Facebook user ‘Mhmdmhywbalshrby5’. The accompanying text, when translated, stated that it showed Israeli bombardment of Sanaa, Yemen.
Similarly, another Instagram user ‘ae5ce’ had also shared the same video on August 24, 2025, identifying it as footage from Sanaa.
Media reports further support this finding. According to a report published by Egypt Today on August 24, 2025, Israel carried out multiple airstrikes in Sanaa targeting key locations, including an oil station, a power facility, and the presidential palace. Casualties were also reported. The strikes were said to be in response to attacks by Houthi forces.
Additionally, the New York Post shared another video of the same incident from a different angle on its X (formerly Twitter) handle on August 25, 2025.
Conclusion
The video being circulated with the claim of Iran attacking Tel Aviv is actually old footage from Israeli airstrikes in Yemen in August 2025. It is unrelated to the ongoing conflict.
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Introduction
" सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः, सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः " May all be happy, may all be free from suffering. This timeless invocation reflects a vision of collective well-being, where progress is meaningful only when shared, and protection extends to every individual in society. This very philosophy lies at the heart of Corporate Social Responsibility, which seeks to ensure that growth is not isolated or unequal, but inclusive, ethical, and mindful of the broader social good.
At its core, Corporate Social Responsibility is not merely a statutory obligation, it is a reflection of a deeper ethical commitment, an acknowledgement that growth must carry with it a sense of duty towards society. In many ways, CSR embodies the idea that progress without responsibility is incomplete, and that corporations, as key actors shaping modern life, must help safeguard the very communities they engage with.
Reframing Digital Literacy Through Cyber Safety in CSR Frameworks
In India, this moral vision has been given a legal structure under the Companies Act, 2013, CSR Schedule VII, which mandates certain classes of companies to allocate a portion of their profits towards socially beneficial activities. Section 135 of the Act requires companies meeting specified financial thresholds to undertake CSR initiatives, guided by principles of inclusivity, sustainability, and social welfare. The underlying values are clear, CSR is intended not as charity, but as a strategic and accountable contribution to societal development.
Schedule VII of the Act further outlines the broad areas that qualify as CSR, including “Education and Digital Literacy”, gender equality, rural development, and measures for reducing inequalities. Within this framework, promoting “digital literacy” has increasingly been recognised as a legitimate and necessary CSR activity, especially in the context of a rapidly digitising society like India.
However, the current understanding of digital literacy within CSR remains incomplete. It often emphasises access and usage, teaching individuals how to navigate digital platforms, use devices, and engage with online services. What remains insufficiently addressed is the question of safety. In an environment where cyber fraud, data breaches, online harassment, and identity theft are becoming increasingly common, digital literacy without cyber awareness risks becoming a partial and potentially harmful intervention.
Embedding cyber awareness and capacity building within ‘digital literacy’ in explicit form is therefore not optional, it is essential. This includes equipping individuals with the ability to recognise online threats, protect personal data, understand digital consent, and respond effectively to cyber risks. It also requires recognising that vulnerable populations, including first-time internet users, women, and marginalised communities, often face disproportionate exposure to cyber harm.
“It is pertinent to note that Cybersecurity awareness training is relevant to CSR but is not yet consistently implemented as an explicit CSR activity. It is often included indirectly within digital literacy programs, highlighting the need for a more structured, progressive and integrated approach.”
Given this reality, there is a strong case for explicitly recognising cyber awareness as a distinct and integral component of CSR activities, rather than treating it as an implicit subset of digital literacy. Doing so would not only align CSR with contemporary societal risks but also ensure that corporate interventions move beyond enabling access to actively ensuring safety.
In a digital society, empowerment without protection is incomplete. If CSR is to truly reflect its foundational values, it must evolve to address not just the opportunities of the digital age, but also its risks.
Why Cyber Safety Must Be Central to CSR
The current state of digital ecosystems, which used to operate as secondary systems, now functions as essential systems that support government operations, banking systems, educational institutions, and social communication. The digital environment has its vulnerabilities, which create direct dangers for people in society. The elderly, first-time internet users, and rural communities face higher cyber threat risks because they often lack knowledge and protective resources on responsible use. The implementation of CSR initiatives that provide digital access to these groups, along with how to handle risks, will create greater benefit for their safety. Organisations must encourage the implementation of cyber safety training in their CSR programs because doing so will create value while fulfilling their ethical obligations. The empowerment process needs to achieve complete success, which protects people from any potential dangers according to the "do no harm" principle.
Key Components of CyberPeace-Aligned Digital Literacy
To make CSR initiatives more effective and future-ready, organisations should incorporate the following elements into their digital literacy programs:
- Cyber Awareness and Risk Recognition: The training program teaches participants how to recognise typical security threats, which include phishing attacks and scams, deepfake technology and misinformation.
- Data Protection and Privacy Literacy: The program teaches users how to protect their personal information, together with the process of giving consent and the methods used to handle their online presence.
- Responsible Digital Behaviour: The program teaches people how to use the internet responsibly by showing them how to make ethical decisions that require both respect and accountability while understanding the legal consequences of their actions.
- Incident Response and Reporting Mechanisms: The program teaches users about cyber incident response, which includes all reporting methods and available support resources.
- Inclusion-Focused Design: The program develops specific solutions which protect various demographic groups from their particular vulnerabilities while maintaining accessibility and essential programmatic relevance.
Policy and Institutional Alignment
The integration of cyber safety into corporate social responsibility lets organisations achieve their national objectives, which include:
- Strengthening digital trust and resilience
- Supporting safe digital inclusion initiatives
- Complementing the efforts of institutions working on cybersecurity awareness and capacity building
The structured approach requires organisations to execute three specific steps, which include:
- Partnering with cybersecurity organisations and civil society
- Developing standardised cyber awareness modules
- The organisation will use behavioural change indicators to evaluate its impact instead of relying on access metrics.
The Way Forward
Digital-era Corporate Social Responsibility needs to transition from its present state of providing access to digital resources toward establishing secure online platforms for users. The understanding of digital literacy needs to shift from its current status as a technical ability toward its new definition as a social competency that encompasses safety, responsibility and resilience training.
Companies need to understand their digital transformation obligations because their digital transformation efforts require them to handle all associated risks. The implementation of cyber safety within corporate social responsibility frameworks will enable organisations to develop a secure and trustworthy digital environment that includes all users.
Conclusion
The implementation of corporate social responsibility needs to fulfil its core mission of creating societal benefits through inclusive practices that span all current digital possibilities and their associated security threats. The field of digital literacy requires a new framework that combines digital safety practices with its existing educational materials.
The digital safety practice ensures that people obtain essential knowledge and skills that enable them to use digital resources securely when they access online content. The process of accomplishing shared community prosperity needs to establish a framework that benefits every person through social advancement and the protection of their rights.
References
- https://upload.indiacode.nic.in/schedulefile?aid=AC_CEN_22_29_00008_201318_1517807327856&rid=79
- https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2025/vol11issue4/PartF/11-5-60-511.pdf
- https://www.unesco.org/en/dtc-finance-toolkit-factsheets/corporate-social-responsibility-csr
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corp-social-responsibility.asp
- https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/corporate-16-brands-doing-corporate-social-responsibility-successfully
- https://www.imd.org/blog/sustainability/csr-strategy/
Executive Summary:
A viral clip where the Indian batsman Virat Kohli is shown endorsing an online casino and declaring a Rs 50,000 jackpot in three days as a guarantee has been proved a fake. In the clip that is accompanied by manipulated captions, Kohli is said to have admitted to being involved in the launch of an online casino during the interview with Graham Bensinger but this is not true. Nevertheless, an investigation showed that the original interview, which was published on YouTube in the last quarter of 2023 by Bensinger, did not have the mentioned words spoken by Kohli. Besides, another AI deepfake analysis tool called Deepware labelled the viral video as a deepfake.
Claims:
The viral video states that cricket star Virat Kohli gets involved in the promotion of an online casino and ensures that the users of the site can make a profit of Rs 50,000 within three days. Conversely, the CyberPeace Research Team has just revealed that the video is a deepfake and not the original and there is no credible evidence suggesting Kohli's participation in such endorsements. A lot of the users are sharing the videos with the wrong info title over different Social Media platforms.
Fact Check:
As soon as we were informed about the news, we made use of Keyword Search to see any news report that could be considered credible about Virat Kohli promoting any Casino app and we found nothing. Therefore, we also used Reverse Image Search for Virat Kohli wearing a Black T-shirt as seen in the video to find out more about the subject. We landed on a YouTube Video by Graham Bensinger, an American Journalist. The clip of the viral video was taken from this original video.
In this video, he discussed his childhood, his diet, his cricket training, his marriage, etc. but did not mention anything regarding a newly launched Casino app by the cricketer.
Through close scrutiny of the viral video we have noticed some inconsistencies in the lip-sync and voice. Subsequently, we executed Deepfake Detection in Deepware tool and identified it to be Deepfake Detected.
Finally, we affirm that the Viral Video Is Deepfakes Video and the statement made is False.
Conclusion:
The video has gone viral and claims that cricketer Virat Kohli is the one endorsing an online casino and assuring you that in three days time you will be a guaranteed winner of Rs 50,000. This is all a fake story. This incident demonstrates the necessity of checking facts and a source before believing any information, as well as remaining sceptical about deepfakes and AI (artificial intelligence), which is a new technology used nowadays for spreading misinformation.
Introduction
As technology advances, global connectivity becomes increasingly vital. Meta's "Project Waterworth" once completed, will reach five major continents and span over 50,000 km, making it the world’s longest subsea cable project using the highest-capacity technology available. This project is expected to bring industry-leading connectivity to the U.S., India, Brazil, South Africa, and other key regions. It will enable greater economic cooperation, facilitate digital inclusion, and open opportunities for technological development in these regions.
In India, a project such as this will help accelerate this progress and support the country’s ambitious plans for its digital economy in cohesion with the significant growth and investment in digital infrastructure that is already underway. Subsea cable projects, such as Project Waterworth, are the backbone of global digital infrastructure, accounting for more than 95% of intercontinental traffic across the world’s oceans to seamlessly enable digital communication, video experiences, online transactions, and more.
Enhancing India's Digital Infrastructure
A subsea cable, or submarine cable, enhances global internet speed and reliability by carrying massive data volumes across ocean floors, connecting countries and continents. Compared to satellites, these cables offer greater stability and minimal disruptions.
Project Waterworth aims to build the world's longest 24-fibre pair cable, improving resilience and deployment speed. The project is expected to prevent the damages in high-risk areas, through the use of innovative routing with maximising deep-water placement (up to 7,000 meters) and enhanced burial techniques. This project will play a crucial role in the advancement of AI and emerging technologies, ensuring widespread access to their benefits in India.
CyberPeace Takeaways
The said project has the potential to have manifold implications ranging from economic and policy to India-US relations, data privacy and security concerns emerging from the increase in the data flows and others. A segregated list of takeaways is as follows:
- Economic and policy implications: The project can lead to economic growth as it has the potential for job creation, and investment opportunities and can lead to positioning India as a digital hub globally. The creation of regulatory frameworks that can support and secure a large-scale infrastructure project such as this is necessary.
- India- US Relations: This project will align with the commitments that were made in the US-India joint statement on undersea technology collaboration and strengthen them. It will further serve as a model for future collaborations between the nations’ tech entities.
- Concerns for Data Privacy and Security: A robust cybersecurity mechanism which can combat the potential risks associated with the increased data flows is required. The concerned authorities need to be vigilant in monitoring and ensuring compliance with the applicable data protection standards set such as the IT Act of 2000, the DPDP Act of 2023 and its rules(once finalised).
Conclusion
India has been provided with a transformative opportunity to bolster its digital landscape by the advent of Project Waterworth. The enhancement of internet speed, stability, and capacity, will strengthen the country’s digital infrastructure and support economic growth. This project is also projected to accelerate AI-driven advancements in India. Moreover, this technological collaboration between India-US will strengthen their relations and set the stage for India to negotiate future global partnerships. A well-defined regulatory framework and strong cybersecurity measures will be crucial to proactively address data privacy, security, and governance challenges to ensure safe and equitable digital progress. As India continues its rapid digital expansion, engaging in informed discussions, policy planning, and strategic investments will be key to maximise Project Waterworth’s impact and propel India toward a more connected, innovative, and resilient digital future.
