#FactCheck - Fake Graphic Falsely Claims Amit Shah Urged People to Skip Meals Amid Crisis Rumours
Executive Summary
A graphic widely circulating on social media claims that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has warned, “A major crisis is coming; if possible, skip one meal a day.” The claim has been found to be false in a fact-check conducted by CyberPeace Research Wing. The research revealed that Amit Shah has not made any such statement.
Claim
A Facebook user shared the viral graphic on May 17, 2026, claiming that BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah issued a “warning” to the public, allegedly saying people should be prepared for a major crisis and consider skipping one meal a day. The post has been widely circulated on social media, drawing significant attention and discussion.
- https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1509406197622070&set=pb.100056581115590.-2207520000&type=3
- https://archive.ph/Z9Tle
Factcheck
A keyword-based search on Google did not return any credible news reports supporting the claim. Further scrutiny of the official account of the Ministry of Home Affairs on X also found no mention or statement matching the viral claim.
A separate review of the official X account of Home Minister Amit Shah also did not show any such statement or post confirming the viral claim.
Conclusion
The viral claim is false. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has not made any such statement.
Related Blogs
Executive Summary:
A video of former Army Chief General Manoj Pande is going viral on social media with the claim that he attacked the Modi government, saying that supporting Israel is causing significant harm to the Indian Army. The research by CyberPeace revealed that the audio present in the viral video is AI-generated. No such statement was made in the original video.
Claim:
On social media platform X, while sharing the viral video, users wrote, “Delhi: Former Army Chief General Manoj Pande (Retd.) said, ‘Do you know what the biggest loss of supporting Israel is? Our Indian Army was always trained as a moral force, but the current situation is turning it into an ethnic force. Remember my words, this situation is moving towards a complete rebellion. We have all seen what is happening in Assam.’ ‘The Israeli army stands against humanity, and brutality has become its identity. Our army is becoming like them due to its association. The Modi government and the Sangh Parivar are responsible for this. For both, Israel is an ideal country, and they are running an agenda to turn India into Israel.’”
Fact Check:
In the research of the viral video claiming that former Army Chief General Manoj Pande attacked the Modi government, we conducted a reverse image search with the help of keyframes. During this process, we found a video uploaded on March 14 on the X account of the news agency Press Trust of India (PTI).
The visuals present in the video matched those in the viral video.
In this video, former Army Chief General Manoj Pande was seen delivering a speech in Marathi and English. However, during this, he was talking about increasing new kinds of capabilities in view of the current situation and not mentioning Israel, as claimed in the viral video. In the approximately 1 minute 15 seconds long video, he did not give any such statement as present in the viral video.
While taking the research forward, we found a report published on March 15, 2026, on the website of ThePrint. This report mentioned the speech delivered by former Army Chief General Manoj Pande, but no report mentioned the statement shown in the viral video.
Conclusion:
Our research found that the audio present in the viral video is AI-generated. In the original video, he did not make any such statement.
Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast transforming our future in the digital world, transforming healthcare, finance, education, and cybersecurity. But alongside this technology, bad actors are also weaponising it. More and more, state-sponsored cyber actors are misusing AI tools such as ChatGPT and other generative models to automate disinformation, enable cyberattacks, and speed up social engineering operations. This write-up explores why and how AI, in the form of large language models (LLMs), is being exploited in cyber operations associated with adversarial states, and the necessity for international vigilance, regulation, and AI safety guidelines.
The Shift: AI as a Cyber Weapon
State-sponsored threat actors are misusing tools such as ChatGPT to turbocharge their cyber arsenal.
- Phishing Campaigns using AI- Generative AI allows for highly convincing and grammatically correct phishing emails. Unlike the shoddily written scams of yesteryears, these AI-based messages are tailored according to the victim's location, language, and professional background, increasing the attack success rate considerably. Example: It has recently been reported by OpenAI and Microsoft that Russian and North Korean APTs have employed LLMs to create customised phishing baits and malware obfuscation notes.
- Malware Obfuscation and Script Generation- Big Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT may be used by cyber attackers to help write, debug, and camouflage malicious scripts. While the majority of AI instruments contain safety mechanisms to guard against abuse, threat actors often exploit "jailbreaking" to evade these protections. Once such constraints are lifted, the model can be utilised to develop polymorphic malware that alters its code composition to avoid detection. It can also be used to obfuscate PowerShell or Python scripts to render them difficult for conventional antivirus software to identify. Also, LLMs have been employed to propose techniques for backdoor installation, additional facilitating stealthy access to hijacked systems.
- Disinformation and Narrative Manipulation
State-sponsored cyber actors are increasingly employing AI to scale up and automate disinformation operations, especially on election, protest, and geopolitical dispute days. With LLMs' assistance, these actors can create massive amounts of ersatz news stories, deepfake interview transcripts, imitation social media posts, and bogus public remarks on online forums and petitions. The localisation of content makes this strategy especially perilous, as messages are written with cultural and linguistic specificity, making them credible and more difficult to detect. The ultimate aim is to seed societal unrest, manipulate public sentiments, and erode faith in democratic institutions.
Disrupting Malicious Uses of AI – OpenAI Report (June 2025)
OpenAI released a comprehensive threat intelligence report called "Disrupting Malicious Uses of AI" and the “Staying ahead of threat actors in the age of AI”, which outlined how state-affiliated actors had been testing and misusing its language models for malicious intent. The report named few advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, each attributed to particular nation-states. OpenAI highlighted that the threat actors used the models mostly for enhancing linguistic quality, generating social engineering content, and expanding operations. Significantly, the report mentioned that the tools were not utilized to produce malware, but rather to support preparatory and communicative phases of larger cyber operations.
AI Jailbreaking: Dodging Safety Measures
One of the largest worries is how malicious users can "jailbreak" AI models, misleading them into generating banned content using adversarial input. Some methods employed are:
- Roleplay: Simulating the AI being a professional criminal advisor
- Obfuscation: Concealing requests with code or jargon
- Language Switching: Proposing sensitive inquiries in less frequently moderated languages
- Prompt Injection: Lacing dangerous requests within innocent-appearing questions
These methods have enabled attackers to bypass moderation tools, transforming otherwise moral tools into cybercrime instruments.
Conclusion
As AI generations evolve and become more accessible, its application by state-sponsored cyber actors is unprecedentedly threatening global cybersecurity. The distinction between nation-state intelligence collection and cybercrime is eroding, with AI serving as a multiplier of adversarial campaigns. AI tools such as ChatGPT, which were created for benevolent purposes, can be targeted to multiply phishing, propaganda, and social engineering attacks. The cross-border governance, ethical development practices, and cyber hygiene practices need to be encouraged. AI needs to be shaped not only by innovation but by responsibility.
References
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2024/02/14/staying-ahead-of-threat-actors-in-the-age-of-ai/
- https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/openais-chatgpt-hit-nation-state-hackers-a-28640
- https://oecd.ai/en/incidents/2025-06-13-b5e9
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/security-insider/meet-the-experts/emerging-AI-tactics-in-use-by-threat-actors
- https://www.wired.com/story/youre-not-ready-for-ai-hacker-agents/
- https://www.cert-in.org.in/PDF/Digital_Threat_Report_2024.pdf
- https://cdn.openai.com/threat-intelligence-reports/5f73af09-a3a3-4a55-992e-069237681620/disrupting-malicious-uses-of-ai-june-2025.pdf
Executive Summary:
A video is being shared on social media showing an aircraft engulfed in massive flames on an airport runway. The video is being linked to the UAE. It is being claimed that a UAE airport was completely destroyed due to recent drone and missile attacks by Iran. Research by the CyberPeace found the viral claim to be false. Our research revealed that the viral video is not real, but AI-generated.
Claim:
On social media platform Facebook, a user shared the viral video on March 3, 2026, and wrote, “Amid the Iran-US-Israel conflict in the Middle East, operations at several major airports, including Dubai International Airport, have been temporarily suspended, causing thousands of flight cancellations and delays. Due to multiple missile and drone attacks from Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had shut its airspace, and limited structural damage at Dubai Airport was also confirmed, with reports of four staff members being injured. Later, considering the security situation, a limited number of flights were resumed, but full operations are still delayed due to ongoing safety concerns. This tension has significantly impacted regional aviation, travel, and global flight routes.”
Fact Check:
To verify the viral video, we searched relevant keywords on Google. However, we did not find any credible media report confirming the claim.However, we found a video report on the YouTube channel of CNN-News18 mentioning explosions near Dubai Airport after a suspected Iranian drone strike. But the visuals shown in that report are completely different from the viral video.
Upon closely examining the viral video, we noticed several inconsistencies, raising suspicion that it might be AI-generated. We then analyzed the video using the AI detection tool Sightengine. The results indicated that the video is 71 percent likely to be AI-generated.
Conclusion:
Our research found that the viral video is not real, but AI-generated.
