#FactCheck: Video of West Bengal Police Uniforms Falsely Linked to Recent Protests in Delhi
Executive Summary
Amid reports of clashes between protesters and police at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, a video showing a car filled with khaki uniforms is going viral on social media. Several users have claimed that the video proves that goons were provided with khaki uniforms during the recent protests in Delhi. In one such video, a man claims that police personnel deployed on duty during the Jantar Mantar protests are not wearing nameplates. CyberPeace Research found that the video is from West Bengal and has no connection with the recent protests in Delhi.
Claim
An X user shared the video with the caption, “Delhi Police uniforms have been manufactured in bulk. The only unfortunate thing is that the nameplates could not be made. That is why you may have noticed that the personnel are wearing Delhi Police uniforms but their names are missing.” Online magazine Saamna also shared the video, claiming it was from Delhi.
https://x.com/MauryaAlka76391/status/2109322470411128921
https://ghostarchive.org/archive/hWCjI
Fact Check
We noticed that people in the viral video could be heard speaking Bengali, which led us to suspect that the footage might be from West Bengal. A reverse search of its keyframes led us to a post shared by a Facebook user named Rakesh Sarkar on October 9. The post identified the location as Bagdah in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district. The post included hashtags such as ‘#WBP’, ‘#wbppolice’ and ‘West Bengal Police’. In the comments section, Sarkar stated that the uniforms shown in the video were meant for newly recruited personnel in the West Bengal Police.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1681910233366141
The cover photo on Rakesh Sarkar’s Facebook timeline features the West Bengal Police logo. According to the information provided in his bio, Sarkar lives in Bangaon, a town in the North 24 Parganas district. On October 1, 2026, he shared a video showing several people standing in a queue while a man asked them to write something in a register one by one. The Bengali caption accompanying the post translates to: “Today, uniform measurements were taken for the selected candidates of the Bangaon Police Department.”
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1399250945143485
Conclusion
Our research found that the viral video is from West Bengal and has no connection with the recent protests in Delhi.
Related Blogs
Executive Summary:
A viral video claiming the crash site of Air India Flight AI-171 in Ahmedabad has misled many people online. The video has been confirmed not to be from India or a recent crash, but was filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood on a TV or movie set meant to look like a plane crash set piece for a movie.
Claim:
A video that purportedly shows the wreckage of Air India Flight AI-171 after crashing in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025, has circulated among social media users. The video shows a large amount of aircraft wreckage as well as destroyed homes and a scene reminiscent of an emergency, making it look genuine.
Fact check:
In our research, we took screenshots from the viral video and used reverse image search, which matched visuals from Universal Studios Hollywood. It became apparent that the video is actually from the most famous “War of the Worlds" set, located in Universal Studios Hollywood. The set features a 747 crash scene that was constructed permanently for Steven Spielberg's movie in 2005. We also found a YouTube video. The set has fake smoke poured on it, with debris scattered about and additional fake faceless structures built to represent a scene with a larger crisis. Multiple videos on YouTube here, here, and here can be found from the past with pictures of the tour at Universal Studios Hollywood, the Boeing 747 crash site, made for a movie.
The Universal Studios Hollywood tour includes a visit to a staged crash site featuring a Boeing 747, which has unfortunately been misused in viral posts to spread false information.
While doing research, we were able to locate imagery indicating that the video that went viral, along with the Universal Studios tour footage, provided an exact match and therefore verified that the video had no connection to the Ahmedabad incident. A side-by-side comparison tells us all we need to know to uncover the truth.
Conclusion:
The viral video claiming to show the aftermath of the Air India crash in Ahmedabad is entirely misleading and false. The video is showing a fictitious movie set from Universal Studios Hollywood, not a real disaster scene in India. Spreading misinformation like this can create unnecessary panic and confusion in sensitive situations. We urge viewers to only trust verified news and double-check claims before sharing any content online.
- Claim: Massive explosion and debris shown in viral video after Air India crash.
- Claimed On: Social Media
- Fact Check: False and Misleading
Introduction
Election misinformation poses a major threat to democratic processes all over the world. The rampant spread of misleading information intentionally (disinformation) and unintentionally (misinformation) during the election cycle can not only create grounds for voter confusion with ramifications on election results but also incite harassment, bullying, and even physical violence. The attack on the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C., in 2021, is a classic example of this phenomenon, where the spread of dis/misinformation snowballed into riots.
Election Dis/Misinformation
Election dis/misinformation is false or misleading information that affects/influences public understanding of voting, candidates, and election integrity. The internet, particularly social media, is the foremost source of false information during elections. It hosts fabricated news articles, posts or messages containing incorrectly-captioned pictures and videos, fabricated websites, synthetic media and memes, and distorted truths or lies. In a recent example during the 2024 US elections, fake videos using the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) insignia alleging voter fraud in collusion with a political party and claiming the threat of terrorist attacks were circulated. According to polling data collected by Brookings, false claims influenced how voters saw candidates and shaped opinions on major issues like the economy, immigration, and crime. It also impacted how they viewed the news media’s coverage of the candidates’ campaign. The shaping of public perceptions can thus, directly influence election outcomes. It can increase polarisation, affect the quality of democratic discourse, and cause disenfranchisement. From a broader perspective, pervasive and persistent misinformation during the electoral process also has the potential to erode public trust in democratic government institutions and destabilise social order in the long run.
Challenges In Combating Dis/Misinformation
- Platform Limitations: Current content moderation practices by social media companies struggle to identify and flag misinformation effectively. To address this, further adjustments are needed, including platform design improvements, algorithm changes, enhanced content moderation, and stronger regulations.
- Speed and Spread: Due to increasingly powerful algorithms, the speed and scale at which misinformation can spread is unprecedented. In contrast, content moderation and fact-checking are reactive and are more time-consuming. Further, incendiary material, which is often the subject of fake news, tends to command higher emotional engagement and thus, spreads faster (virality).
- Geopolitical influences: Foreign actors seeking to benefit from the erosion of public trust in the USA present a challenge to the country's governance, administration and security machinery. In 2018, the federal jury indicted 11 Russian military officials for alleged computer hacking to gain access to files during the 2016 elections. Similarly, Russian involvement in the 2024 federal elections has been alleged by high-ranking officials such as White House national security spokesman John Kirby, and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
- Lack of Targeted Plan to Combat Election Dis/Misinformation: In the USA, dis/misinformation is indirectly addressed through laws on commercial advertising, fraud, defamation, etc. At the state level, some laws such as Bills AB 730, AB 2655, AB 2839, and AB 2355 in California target election dis/misinformation. The federal and state governments criminalize false claims about election procedures, but the Constitution mandates “breathing space” for protection from false statements within election speech. This makes it difficult for the government to regulate election-related falsities.
CyberPeace Recommendations
- Strengthening Election Cybersecurity Infrastructure: To build public trust in the electoral process and its institutions, security measures such as updated data protection protocols, publicized audits of election results, encryption of voter data, etc. can be taken. In 2022, the federal legislative body of the USA passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act (ECRA), pushing reforms allowing only a state’s governor or designated executive official to submit official election results, preventing state legislatures from altering elector appointment rules after Election Day and making it more difficult for federal legislators to overturn election results. More investments can be made in training, scenario planning, and fact-checking for more robust mitigation of election-related malpractices online.
- Regulating Transparency on Social Media Platforms: Measures such as transparent labeling of election-related content and clear disclosure of political advertising to increase accountability can make it easier for voters to identify potential misinformation. This type of transparency is a necessary first step in the regulation of content on social media and is useful in providing disclosures, public reporting, and access to data for researchers. Regulatory support is also required in cases where popular platforms actively promote election misinformation.
- Increasing focus on ‘Prebunking’ and Debunking Information: Rather than addressing misinformation after it spreads, ‘prebunking’ should serve as the primary defence to strengthen public resilience ahead of time. On the other hand, misinformation needs to be debunked repeatedly through trusted channels. Psychological inoculation techniques against dis/misinformation can be scaled to reach millions on social media through short videos or messages.
- Focused Interventions On Contentious Themes By Social Media Platforms: As platforms prioritize user growth, the burden of verifying the accuracy of posts largely rests with users. To shoulder the responsibility of tackling false information, social media platforms can outline critical themes with large-scale impact such as anti-vax content, and either censor, ban, or tweak the recommendations algorithm to reduce exposure and weaken online echo chambers.
- Addressing Dis/Information through a Socio-Psychological Lens: Dis/misinformation and its impact on domains like health, education, economy, politics, etc. need to be understood through a psychological and sociological lens, apart from the technological one. A holistic understanding of the propagation of false information should inform digital literacy training in schools and public awareness campaigns to empower citizens to evaluate online information critically.
Conclusion
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024, the link between misleading or false information and societal unrest will be a focal point during elections in several major economies over the next two years. Democracies must employ a mixed approach of immediate tactical solutions, such as large-scale fact-checking and content labelling, and long-term evidence-backed countermeasures, such as digital literacy, to curb the spread and impact of dis/misinformation.
Sources
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2024-election-misinformation-fbi-fake-videos/
- https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-disinformation-defined-the-2024-election-narrative/
- https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/cyber/russian-interference-in-2016-u-s-elections
- https://indianexpress.com/article/world/misinformation-spreads-fear-distrust-ahead-us-election-9652111/
- https://academic.oup.com/ajcl/article/70/Supplement_1/i278/6597032#377629256
- https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/how-states-can-prevent-election-subversion-2024-and-beyond
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2dpj485nno
- https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2022/how-misinformation-and-disinformation-influence-elections
- https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/a-survey-of-expert-views-on-misinformation-definitions-determinants-solutions-and-future-of-the-field/
- https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-06/Digital_News_Report_2023.pdf
- https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/03/disinformation-trust-ecosystem-experts-curb-it/
- https://www.apa.org/topics/journalism-facts/misinformation-recommendations
- https://mythvsreality.eci.gov.in/
- https://www.brookings.edu/articles/transparency-is-essential-for-effective-social-media-regulation/
- https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-should-social-media-platforms-combat-misinformation-and-hate-speech/
A video of Bollywood actor Salman Khan is being widely circulated on social media, in which he can allegedly be heard saying that he will soon join Asaduddin Owaisi’s party, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). Along with the video, a purported image of Salman Khan with Asaduddin Owaisi is also being shared. Social media users are claiming that Salman Khan is set to join the AIMIM party.
CyberPeace research found the viral claim to be false. Our research revealed that Salman Khan has not made any such statement, and that both the viral video and the accompanying image are AI-generated.
Claim
Social media users claim that Salman Khan has announced his decision to join AIMIM.On 19 January 2026, a Facebook user shared the viral video with the caption, “What did Salman say about Owaisi?” In the video, Salman Khan can allegedly be heard saying that he is going to join Owaisi’s party. (The link to the post, its archived version, and screenshots are available.)
Fact Check:
To verify the claim, we first searched Google using relevant keywords. However, no credible or reliable media reports were found supporting the claim that Salman Khan is joining AIMIM.
In the next step of verification, we extracted key frames from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens. This led us to a video posted on Salman Khan’s official Instagram account on 21 April 2023. In the original video, Salman Khan is seen talking about an event scheduled to take place in Dubai. A careful review of the full video confirmed that no statement related to AIMIM or Asaduddin Owaisi is made.
Further analysis of the viral clip revealed that Salman Khan’s voice sounds unnatural and robotic. To verify this, we scanned the video using AURGIN AI, an AI-generated content detection tool. According to the tool’s analysis, the viral video was generated using artificial intelligence.
Conclusion
Salman Khan has not announced that he is joining the AIMIM party. The viral video and the image circulating on social media are AI-generated and manipulated.
