Claim: A video shows Pakistan Tehreek Insaf’s (PTI) rally at D-Chowk held earlier this month.
Fact: The video is clearly AI-generated.
On 5 October, X user @Abdulla_Alamadi posted a video (archive) apparently showing Pakistan Tehreek Insaf’s (PTI) supporters marching on a road to D-Chowk during a protest. The user wrote: “𝑫𝙊 𝙊𝑹 𝑫𝙄𝑬: The Pakistani political scene has not calmed down since the arrest of Imran Khan. It seems that no political stability as long as Mr Khan is behind bars.”
The post claims to show the demonstration by Khan’s supporters in the capital, held earlier this month, which eventually escalated into clashes between the police and demonstrators. The text “DO or Die D Chowk” is superimposed on the video.
The video was widely reposted by users who appear to be PTI’s supporters.
Early in October, supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan rallied to demand his release in Islamabad. Khan has been in jail since August 2023 on trumped-up charges, the majority of which were dropped or suspended.
During the protest, authorities placed shipping containers to block their entry into the capital and shut off cellular services. The protests eventually escalated into clashes with police, who shelled and tear gassed the demonstrators.
A demonstration was also scheduled on 15 October, which coincided with 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Summit held in Islamabad from 15 to 16 October, but it was called off after the government allowed a medical check-up of Khan.
On 15 October, two doctors visited Khan who was “in good health,” wrote the chairman of PTI Barrister Gohar Khan in a post on X.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes but found no credible news reports that had shared pictures similar to keyframes of/or the original video.
Firstly, D-Chowk does not look like the area shown in the footage. Actual images of the area can be seen in news reports, and social media. The buildings that line the road on both sides in the original footage cannot be found in the aforementioned sources that show D-Chowk from various angles. Google Maps imagery also confirms the non-existence of buildings shown in the original footage.
We then analysed the video and found that it is AI-generated.
Areas flanking the road on both sides in the original footage look artificial: buildings are blurred, indicating AI generation software’s failure to resurrect surroundings similar to D-Chowk.
Additionally, most of the flags from left to right are striped red and green, resembling the colours of the PTI’s flag. However, these flags are missing a crescent and a star, a symbol found on the party’s official flag. One flag in particular, as highlighted in the screenshot of the video below, from the start till timestamp 0:05, is red and has a yellow symbol, but the symbol suddenly disappears after 0:05.
A symbol disappears from the flag after timestamp 0:05 as shown in the image on the right.
Moreover, the area is crowded in the footage but upon closer examination, the faces and bodies of the people are barely visible—some are headless, some conjoined and a few others have banners in place of their heads.
On the top left corner, a car seems to be floating whereas the figure walking by the truck, highlighted in the screenshot below, is unusually tall. The cars and trucks moving alongside the demonstrators are more or less moving unnaturally, as if they were being pulled along by the force of the moving crowd.
A floating truck and a tall figure are highlighted in the image.
All of the aforementioned defects are hallmarks of AI-generated content. Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes the video does not show D-Chowk in Islamabad and appears to be AI-generated.
Virality
On X, the post garnered 30K views and was liked 2374 times.
It appeared on Facebook here.
Conclusion: The video apparently showing supporters of Imran Khan marching to D-Chowk from October 2024 is AI-generated.
Background image in cover photo: The News
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