AI-edited image places alcohol in front of BNP member of parliament
All captions and news report excerpts in this article have been translated from Bangla into English.
An image has recently been circulating on social media with the claim that Shahadat Hossain Selim, the member of parliament representing Lakshmipur-1 constituency in Bangladesh, was consuming alcohol. The image shows bottles of alcohol and a bowl of snacks arranged in front of him. A fact-check by Dismislab found that the image had been edited using artificial intelligence. A second version of the same image — without the alcohol and snacks — has also been circulated as the “original” photograph. However, verification revealed that this version is also AI-edited, with the alcohol and snacks digitally removed.
Dismislab found the photo first on a Facebook page named “Journalist Elias Hossain Fans.” The caption of the post read: “While single-handedly emptying an entire bottle of alcohol, MP Shahadat Hossain Selim of BNP’s Ramganj constituency in Lakshmipur-1 is making the country drug-free.”
As of the time of writing, the post had been shared more than 150 times and received more than 700 reactions.
The image was also posted from multiple other accounts (1, 2, 3). Several YouTube channels also uploaded the image (1, 2).
To verify the image’s authenticity, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search, which found a report published on July 5 by the outlet Lakshmipur TV. The headline of that report read, “Protest over spreading MP Selim’s image after distorting using AI.”
Upon closer inspection of the image, Dismislab identified a visual inconsistency: a portion of a glass had merged unnaturally with one of the alcohol bottles in the photograph.
For further verification, Dismislab tested the image using multiple AI-detection tools. Google’s SynthID technology detected a digital watermark in the image. SynthID is a specialized tool developed by Google that uses digital watermarking technology to identify content that has been created or edited using Google’s AI systems.
The heatmap generated by SynthID showed that the watermark was detected specifically in the area of the image depicting the tray of alcohol bottles and snacks arranged in front of Member of Parliament Shahadat Hossain Selim.
A subsequent keyword search led Dismislab to several additional posts on the subject (1, 2, 3). Those posts placed the two versions of the image side by side — one with the alcohol and snacks and one without — presenting the image with alcohol as AI-edited and the image without alcohol as the “original photograph.”
The posts also included a screenshot purportedly showing that the image in question had been uploaded by an account under the name “Arfan Khan Mahim.” However, at the time of writing this report, the post could not be found on that account.
Meanwhile, noting that the lighting and shadow in the image being promoted as the “original” appeared somewhat artificial, Dismislab also tested it using Google’s AI-detection tool, SynthID. The results showed that the image being presented in multiple posts as the authentic original had also been edited using AI. The SynthID heatmap indicated that the tray of alcohol bottles — which had been digitally added using AI — had subsequently been removed again using AI, and the resulting image was then being circulated as the “original.”
Dismislab was unable to locate the original, unedited version of the photograph.
In conclusion, both the image showing alcohol bottles arranged in front of Member of Parliament Shahadat Hossain Selim — circulated with the claim that he was consuming alcohol — and the version without the bottles being promoted as the “original” have both been created through AI editing.
