Claim: A video shows former first lady Bushra Bibi talking about a kiss with a man during an interview.
Fact: The video is a deepfake, with Bushra Bibi’s face superimposed onto the footage of another woman which dates back to November 2022.
On 26 April 2024, Facebook user Akbar Gilgiti posted a video of Imran Khan’s wife and former first lady Bushra Bibi discussing a kiss during an interview.
The Urdu caption reads,
“This video is from when the mother of youthiyas Bushra Bibi was a flexible dancer”
The viral video shows a man interviewing Bushra Bibi about a previous clip involving a kiss that went viral on social media. She can be heard responding that whoever has a problem with the kiss can call her. The clip ends abruptly before she can finish her comment on the video hurting the sentiments of some people.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check ascertained that at the 11-second mark of the video, the name of a Facebook page ‘MN Point’ appears on the screen. Taking a cue from this, we searched Facebook for the page and found it with a red and white logo that matches the one visible in the viral video on the bottom right.
We sifted through multiple videos posted by the page, which has 6,300 likes and 109,000 followers, and found the original video of a woman called Rabia peerni, and not Bushra Bibi, posted on 23 November 2022. It is titled, “Rabia Peerni [faith healer] has revealed all the truth about what the media has been making her do.”
The video caption states that Rabia peerni has exposed the media’s actions. In the clip, the interviewer Mujahid Nayab mentions a video which was shared on MN Point’s YouTube channel on 7 November 2022 in which he kissed Rabia peerni on her cheek. Rabia informs viewers that they can contact her directly if they have any problems with the video and provides her contact number. She goes on to ask for an apology from the interviewer and other media outlets for damaging her reputation and calling her vulgar after the video went viral. The anchor then apologises to her.
The viral clip claiming to show Bushra Bibi appears to be a deepfake, engineered to deceive viewers by seamlessly blending manipulated imagery with authentic audio. Inconsistencies such as the misalignment between her speech and mouth movements, as well as a noticeable glitch at the beginning of the video, suggest that the video was tampered with. Slowing down the video also reveals that Bushra Bibi’s face reverts to that of the original person in the initial frames, for a fraction of a second..
AFP, a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), also investigated the claim. Citing comments by deepfake experts, the fact-check concluded that the viral video is altered.
Virality:
The video was posted here, here, here, here and here on Facebook.
Akbar Gilgiti’s post received significant traction with 29,000 views, 234 likes and 267 shares.
It can also be found here, here and here on X (formerly Twitter).
Conclusion: A viral video showing Bushra Bibi discussing a kiss with a television anchor is a deepfake. Bushra Bibi’s face was superimposed onto the footage of another woman which dates back to November 2022. The discrepancies between the audio and lip movements, as well as the brief moments where Bushra Bibi’s face reverts to that of the original person confirms that the video is altered.
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