Claim: A video shows Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif physically fighting each other.
Fact: The viral clip is AI-generated.
On 17 November 2024, a Facebook page called Phatan TV posted a video (archive) apparently showing Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) leaders Nawaz Sharif and his brother, prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, hitting each other. The frame of the video also includes a sentence in Urdu that can be translated to: What is this happening? These two have gone crazy.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse image searched multiple key-frames from the reel and found a photograph of Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif wearing the same clothes, smiling at each other while embracing. This picture was used as the cover image for an article titled published by Business Recorder in 2018.
The same photograph was also published by Dawn, on 20 April 2017, in an article titled “Panamagate verdict: PML-N declares ‘victory’, Supreme Court orders JIT probe of Sharif family.”
More pictures from the same event can be seen in Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s X post from 20 April 2017, the same day Dawn used the photograph. Captioned “Celebrations”, these photographs clearly show that the video in the claim is doctored and the fight did not occur.
In addition, Soch Fact Check also looked at mainstream news sources from 20 April 2017 and did not find any reports claiming a fight between Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif. But we noticed that the inconsistent hand movements and facial expressions in the video point towards AI manipulation. Noting patterns of inconsistencies in movement of body and facial muscles can be an illustrative example of AI-manipulation.
AI-generated videos: How do they work?
It appears that this photograph was used as a prompt to generate a video of the two politicians hitting each other. AI-powered software that can manipulate still images and create videos of actions involves advanced techniques like deepfake generation or motion transfer.
In this case, a still photograph serves as the input, and then the software identifies key elements in the photo, such as the people, their body positions, and backgrounds. This involves pose estimation and object detection. Then the system generates a “skeleton” or structure of the people in the image, predicting how they might move. It uses machine learning to analyze possible joint movements. After this, the software applies pre-existing motion models (such as fighting) to the pose detected in the still photo. This involves generating realistic sequences of actions based on trained datasets. Through this process, a final video product is generated.
There are several tools which can be used to carry out this process, including but not limited to DeepFaceLab, D-ID Creative Studio, RunwayML, Synthesia, DeepMotion, EbSynth.
Virality
The reel shared by Phatan TV received more than 33,000 interactions on Facebook and it was watched more than 2.8 million times. A brief overview of this page, which has 38,000 followers on Facebook, shows it seems to frequently post political reels which include AI-generated images and videos.
Conclusion: A video of Shehbaz Sharif and Nawaz Sharif hitting each other is AI-generated.
—
Background image in cover photo: Business Recorder
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com