Lighthouse Journalism found a post being widely shared on the social media platforms, which claimed that over 25,000 farmers and 5,000 tractors are on their way to reach Delhi. The post also said that the tractors were fitted with hydraulic tools to remove barricades, fire-resistant hard-shell trailers being readied to fight tear gas shells. It was also said that they have performed drills with modified vehicles. However, there was an image that was being shared along with the post that looked out of place. Upon investigation it was found that the viral image used along with the article is AI generated.
Claim:
X user Megh Updates shared the viral image on his profile.
Check the archive version of the claim here.
Other users too are sharing the same image with the similar claims.
Investigation:
The posts were accompanied with a link from ANI news agency. We checked the news report.
The news report did not have the viral image being shared along with the post.
We also found this image on one of the news reports.
However, in one of the news reports it was clearly mentioned in one of the news reports that the image used for the representational purpose was AI generated.
We also uploaded the image of the modified tractors in the Hive Moderation, an AI image detector. The tool suggested that the input is AI generated.
Conclusion: Viral image of modified tractors being used in a farmers protest in Delhi is AI generated.
