#FactCheck - AI-Generated Video Falsely Linked to Protests in Iran
Amid protests against rising inflation in Iran, a video is being widely shared on social media showing people gathering on streets at night while using mobile phone flashlights. The video is being circulated with the claim that it shows recent protests in Iran. Cyber Peace Foundation’s research found that the video being shared as visuals from the ongoing protests in Iran is not real. Our investigation revealed that the viral video is AI-generated and has no connection with actual events on the ground.
Claim
On January 11, 2026, an Instagram user shared the video with a caption written in Spanish. The Hindi translation of the caption reads: “The Iranian government shut down the lights of protesters, but that did not stop them from remaining on the streets demanding that the Ayatollahs step down from power.”The post link, its archived version, and screenshots can be seen below: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTXqzayjqFz/
FactCheck:
To verify the claim, we extracted keyframes from the viral video and conducted a Google reverse image search.During this process, we found the same video uploaded on Instagram on January 11, 2026. In that post, the user explicitly stated that the video was created using AI. The caption reads that the streetlights were turned off to hide the scale of protesters, but people used their phone lights to show their presence, adding:
“I created this video using AI, inspired by tonight’s protests (January 10, 2026) in Tehran, Iran.” Link to the post and screenshot can be seen below: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTWXsHajNvl/
To further verify the authenticity of the video, we scanned it using multiple AI detection tools.Hive Moderation flagged the video as 97 percent AI-generated.
We also scanned the video using another AI detection tool, Wasitai, which likewise identified the video as AI-generated.
Conclusion
Our investigation confirms that the video being shared as footage from protests in Iran is not real. The viral video has been created using artificial intelligence and is being falsely linked to the ongoing protests. The claim circulating on social media is false and misleading.
Related Blogs
Executive Summary
A video showing police personnel dancing on the streets along with civilians is going viral on social media. The clip is being shared with the claim that policemen in West Bengal were celebrating the defeat of Mamata Banerjee and the victory of the BJP.
Research by CyberPeace Research Wing found that the claim is misleading. The viral video is old and unrelated to the West Bengal elections.
Claim
An X user shared the video on April 26, 2026, alleging that police personnel were celebrating BJP’s victory. The post questioned those raising concerns over EVMs, suggesting that even police were openly rejoicing over the election outcome.
- https://x.com/Minakshishriyan/status/2051490074957930510
- https://archive.is/d81OT
Fact Check
To verify the claim, we extracted keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search. This led us to a Reddit post dated September 13, 2022, where the same video was shared. The post described it as footage from Ganesh Visarjan celebrations in India, and several users in the comments identified the location as Maharashtra.
Further research led us to a YouTube channel “Yash Arate Vlogs,” which uploaded the same video on September 10, 2022. The description stated that the clip was recorded during Ganpati immersion celebrations in Kolhapur.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0_w5t-4rmTY
We also found media reports from September 2022 indicating that during Ganesh Visarjan in Kolhapur, loud music and festive atmosphere led even on-duty police personnel to briefly join the celebrations.
Conclusion
Our research confirms that the viral video does not show any post-election celebration in West Bengal. It is an old clip from Maharashtra, recorded during Ganesh Visarjan festivities, and is being falsely shared with a misleading political claim.
Introduction
For more than 10 years, WhatsApp has been designed around one seemingly trivial but impactful idea: your phone number is your digital identity. This concept offered simplicity in terms of contact discovery and onboard- ing but inevitably exposed users to fraud, spam and the everyday necessity of sharing personal phone numbers with complete strangers in group chats and conversations. On June 29th Meta finally revealed a major move: you’ll now be able to choose and reservate a WhatsApp username and communicate without sharing your phone number.
This shift to a username based identity marks the company catching up to platforms like Telegram and Signal, which have utilized this functionality for years.
However, while presented as a push towards greater privacy for the millions using its platform, this new change has already created some alarm around impersonation, cybersquatting, and identity theft. The issues became amplified when, according to reports, the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology advised WhatsApp to halt the implementation of the new features while it clarifies details, shifting a mundane app update into a high-stakes discussion on digital privacy, platform responsibility, and government regulation.
How does the mechanism work?
“WhatsApp’s username is an added pseudonym layer on its current phone number architecture, not a replacement,” Meta said in a statement on Thursday, as reported by TechCrunch. A WhatsApp username is a three to 35-character name containing lower case letters, numbers, periods and underscores that must contain at least one letter and “should not look like a website address.” The feature will allow you to “reserve a unique identifier that you can share as an alternative to your phone number in WhatsApp Settings - Accounts - Username.”
It said the usernames will work in parallel with a username key which can serve as a passphrase to initiate conversation “with a recipient before sending a message for the first time.”
“The change - which will have some additional, protective measures like reserving usernames for people of public interest or those that would cause impersonation, and rate limits on claiming names - can help maintain phone number protection, while offering people more choices,” Meta said. WhatsApp said usernames will replace phone numbers as the primary way to initiate new chats, but will not be publicly searchable: “Anyone you message would need your exact username, and would still need you to respond.”
The Genuine Privacy Case
The upside is real. Phone numbers double as keys to two-factor authentication, banking apps and SIM-swap fraud, so handing one to a new acquaintance, a group chat of strangers or a customer-support bot has always carried quiet risk. Numbers harvested from public groups already fuel spam and scam campaigns, and a username-first model narrows that exposure considerably.
For journalists, small business owners and anyone who fields messages from people they've never met, decoupling identity from a number that also unlocks their bank account is a meaningful, overdue shift – and one that WhatsApp's closest competitors adopted years ago without major incident.
The Scammer's Paradise Scenario
The trouble lies in what a username removes. A phone number was never just an identifier; it was also a rough verification signal and, for law enforcement, a traceable data point. Security reporters testing the reservation system found that lookalike handles mimicking prominent Indian politicians, film stars and the Reserve Bank of India remained available to claim. Crypto executive Changpeng Zhao's own failed bid to capture his desired handle highlighted the first-come, first-served danger of the rollout and led researchers to advise people to manually activate the optional username key that Meta leaves disabled by default.
The Mozilla Foundation was unvarnished about the tradeoff, noting that impersonation from fake accounts and scams are an “inevitable consequence” of a design that abandons the “implicit signal of authenticity” that comes from owning a phone number.
Indian entrepreneur Ankur Warikoo called the rollout a potential “disaster” if robust enforcement against fraud isn’t immediately applied because scammers could register handles a few characters removed from a popular brand or public figure to launch investment and payment schemes, a concern mirrored by cyber security researchers who observed that many users neglect to check verification badges before trusting an account.
India's Regulatory Scrutiny of WhatsApp's Username Feature
So far the strongest reaction comes from New Delhi. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an official notice to Meta's compliance office that it should “temporarily suspend the feature” in the country pending further consultations and “provided an explanation in three days”. The cited concerns involve “digital arrest” fraud, a rapid boom category that involves crooks impersonating investigators like those with India's CBI, judges or customs agents to extort victims, in addition to standard concerns around phishing and bank or government impersonation.
A subtler concern, for India’s government anyway, is “traceability.”
At present, say officials, an Indian mobile number is a launching pad to determine whether a given suspect is a domestic or international actor, while a username and foreign SIM would leave authorities nowhere to begin. The Department of Telecommunications independently voiced concerns over how the change intersects with its SIM-binding regulations and over WhatsApp's lag time for such requests. The MeitY notice, the legal basis for which, incidentally, is in contention with some digital rights groups, specifically invokes Section 79 of the IT Act and various IT Rules from 2021 and provisions on identity theft and impersonation that target individual criminals rather than the tech tools. Not everyone, however, shares MeitY’s reading of the legal ground: the Internet Freedom Foundation says that Section 79 “deal with liability of intermediary” and “does not confer on the government power to license the features of a product,” while arguing the relevant criminal statutes were designed to criminalize impersonators, not tech platforms whose services are misused, echoing concerns that killed a similar government advisement about AI models last spring.
In the meantime, Meta says usernames are unavailable in the country for now and the multilayered safeguards it designed were always intended for exactly this level of risk.
Conclusion
WhatsApp's username feature is neither a total privacy upgrade nor a major security problem; instead, it reallocates risk, reducing phone number exposure while adding a risk of identity spoofing and misuse. Whether it pays off will hinge on the strength of Meta's crackdown on fraudulent usernames, the uptake of extra security features like the username key and whether the company can adequately satisfy regulatory concerns about traceability and user safety. Until all those questions are fully settled, users may want to use the feature tentatively, secure a desired username, enable any other protections and be watchful about new contacts.
References
- https://blog.whatsapp.com/its-time-to-reserve-your-whatsapp-username
- https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/whatsapp-usernames-why-indias-top-creators-fear-scams-impersonation-and-identity-theft-540359-2026-07-02
- https://www.outlookindia.com/national/outlook-explains-why-is-the-indian-government-worried-about-whatsapp-usernames
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/29/whatsapp-now-lets-you-reserve-usernames/
- https://bestmediainfo.com/mediainfo/mediainfo-digital/whatsapp-says-username-feature-not-live-yet-after-meity-asks-meta-to-pause-rollout-12124813
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Introduction
Social media platforms have begun to shape the public understanding of history in today’s digital landscape. You may have encountered videos, images, and posts that claim to reveal an untold story about our past. For example, you might have seen a post on your feed that has a painted or black and white image of a princess and labelled as "the most beautiful princess of Rajasthan who fought countless wars but has been erased from history.” Such emotionally charged narratives spread quickly, without any academic scrutiny or citation. Unfortunately, the originator believes it to be true.
Such unverified content may look harmless. But it profoundly contributes to the systematic distortion of historical information. Such misinformation reoccurs on feeds and becomes embedded in popular memory. It misguides the public discourse and undermines the scholarly research on the relevant topic. Sometimes, it also contributes to communal outrage and social tensions. It is time to recognise that protecting the integrity of our cultural and historical narratives is not only an academic concern but a legal and institutional responsibility. This is where the role of the Ministry of Culture becomes critical.
Pseudohistorical News Information in India
Fake news and misinformation are frequently disseminated via images, pictures, and videos on various messaging applications, which is referred to as “WhatsApp University” in a derogatory way. WhatsApp has become India’s favourite method of communication, while users have to stay very conscious about what they are consuming from forwarded messages. Academic historians strive to understand the past in its context to differentiate it from the present, whereas pseudo-historians try to manipulate history to satisfy their political agendas. Unfortunately, this wave of pseudo-history is expanding rapidly, with platforms like 'WhatsApp University' playing a significant role in amplifying its spread. This has led to an increase in fake historical news and paid journalism. Unlike pseudo-history, academic history is created by professional historians in academic contexts, adhering to strict disciplinary guidelines, including peer review and expert examination of justifications, assertions, and publications.
How to Identify Pseudo-Historic Misinformation
1. Lack of Credible Sources: There is a lack of reliable primary and secondary sources. Instead, pseudohistorical works depend on hearsay and unreliable eyewitness accounts.
2. Selective Use of Evidence: Misinformative posts portray only those facts that support their argument and minimise the facts which is contradictory to their assertions.
3. Incorporation of Conspiracy Theories: They often include conspiracy theories, which postulate secret groups, repressed knowledge. They might mention that evil powers influenced the historical events. Such hypotheses frequently lack any supporting data.
4. Extravagant Claims: Pseudo-historic tales sometimes present unbelievable assertions about historic persons or events.
5. Lack of Peer Review: Such work is generally never published on authentic academic platforms. You would not find them on platforms like LinkedIn, but on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, as they do not pitch for academic publications. Authentic historical research is examined by subject-matter authorities.
6. Neglect of Established Historiographical Methods: Such posts lack knowledge of a recognised methodology and procedures, like the critical study of sources.
7. Ideologically Driven Narratives: Political, communal, ideological, and personal opinions are prioritised in such posts. The author has a prior goal, instead of finding the truth.
8. Exploitation of Gaps in the Historical Record: Pseudo-historians often use missing or unclear parts of history to suggest that regular historians are hiding important secrets. They make the story sound more mysterious than it is.
9. Rejection of Scholarly Consensus: Pseudo-historians often reject the views of experts and historians, choosing instead to believe and promote their strange ideas.
10. Emphasis on Sensationalism: Pseudo-historical works may put more emphasis on sensationalism than academic rigour to pique public interest rather than offer a fair and thorough account of the history.
Legal and Institutional Responsibility
Public opinion is the heart of democracy. It should not be affected by any misinformation or disinformation. Vested interests cannot be allowed to sabotage this public opinion. Specifically, when it concerns academia, it cannot be shared unverified without any fact-checking. Such unverified claims can be called out, and action can be taken only if the authorities take over the charge. In India, the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) regulates the historical academia. As per the official website, their stated aim is to “take all such measures as may be found necessary from time to time to promote historical research and its utilisation in the country,”. However, it is now essential to modernise the functioning of the ICHR to meet the demands of the digital era. Concerned authorities can run campaigns and awareness programmes to question the validity and research of such misinformative posts. Just as there are fact-checking mechanisms for news, there must also be an institutional push to fact-check and regulate historical content online. The following measures can be taken by authorities to strike down such misinformation online:
- Launch a nationwide awareness campaign about historical misinformation.
- Work with scholars, historians, and digital platforms to promote verified content.
- Encourage social media platforms to introduce fact-check labels for historical posts.
- Consider legal frameworks that penalise the deliberate spread of false historical narratives.
History is part of our national heritage, and preserving its accuracy is a matter of public interest. Misinformation and pseudo-history are a combination that misleads the public and weakens the foundation of shared cultural identity. In this digital era, false narratives spread rapidly, and it is important to promote critical thinking, encourage responsible academic work, and ensure that the public has access to accurate and well-researched historical information. Protecting the integrity of history is not just the work of historians — it is a collective responsibility that serves the future of our democracy.
References:
- https://kuey.net/index.php/kuey/article/view/4091
- https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-news-editorials/social-media-and-the-menace-of-false-information
