After a car bombing occurred near the Red Fort in New Delhi, India, which killed 13 people and injured more than 20, a video of Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath is being shared widely on social media platforms.
In the video, Adityanath was heard saying, “What happened in Delhi can happen in Bihar too. We did not start Trishool so that our soldiers would indulge in acrobatics. We have to make a Hindu Rashtra. If for this Hindu Rashtra we have to sacrifice 800 lives we will do that. You have all deceived us. But, if in phase two you vote against BJP, be ready for consequences.”
The video was being shared with the claim: Chief Minister Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath comes on the podium in the wake of New Delhi blasts and openly threatens the people of Bihar that if you won’t vote for BJP in phase 2, then there can be repercussions for you, that you can’t even imagine.
During the investigation, we found that the video was edited using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. The viral claim is fake.
Claim:
X user The Whistle Blower shared the viral video on his profile.
Other users are also sharing the video with similar claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by observing the video first. The voice used in the video sounded synthetic. It can also be noted that Yogi Adityanath was seen addressing the crowd during the day, however, the car blast happened in the evening.
It is also worth noting that the second phase of polling was conducted in Bihar on 11th November, suggesting that the video could be old.
We then ran a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video. This led us to the live video of CM Yogi Adityanath addressing the public meeting in Siwan, Bihar. The viral video also included a screengrab of the ‘The Print’ icon.
In the 23-minute-long video, Yogi Adityanath did not say anything featured in the viral video.
The video was uploaded a week ago. We found several such live streams from the event.
We then downloaded the viral video and also converted it to mp3 file and ran it through several AI detectors.
HIVE Moderation suggested that the video is likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content. While Resemble AI suggested that, though the voice seems real it might have an impersonation. Deepware, another tool also suggested that the video was ‘suspicious’.
Conclusion: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath did not threaten people of Bihar and said that, blast can happen in Bihar too. An old video of his address in Siwan, Bihar, was edited using AI tools and shared as recent. The viral claim is fake.
