Lighthouse journalism came across a video being widely shared on social media platforms. The video featured Lieutenant General Virendra Vats, National Cadet Corps Director General. In the video he was heard saying, “Pakistani drones reached New Delhi and even Gujarat in May this year, as per intelligence reports. Had they struck and not gone back we would have suffered huge losses.” In the video he also claims that sadly India does not have the drone technology that Pakistan has.
During the investigation we found that the viral claim is false. The video was edited using the AI tools.
Claim:
X user Nawaz Khan shared the video on his profile with false claim.
Another account that has been withheld in India, The Whistle Blower had also shared the same video.
Other users also shared the claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by observing the video first carefully. The video did not look completely generated using AI and had the logo of an Indian News Agency, ‘IANS’ on the top right corner.
We then searched the video on the X profile of IANS. We found the posted on IANS handle on Decvember 11.
In this according to the caption, he said: General Virendra Vats says, “Drones will play a major part in our economy. So, besides opening greater opportunities for our cadets, also ability to reinforce our defence forces in terms of drone and also cyber issues. So, in the coming time, you will see that NCCC, you can say NCCCC, National Cyber Cadet Corps, some selected cadets will be given a first-class cyber training…”
The controversial statement has heard in the viral video was not heard in this video. However, as compared to the viral clip the body movement looked a bit different. It was very controlled in the viral clip as compared to the original video.
PIB Fact Check had also clarified on the viral video.
We ran the video through Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector Google Chrome extension, the tool was uncertain if the voice was real. We also ran the video through undetectable.ai which suggested that the video was AI-generated.
Conclusion: Viral video claiming NCC DG Virendra Vats praised Pakistan’s drone technology over India is edited using AI technology. The viral claim is false.
