AI-generated video circulated to claim weapons recovered from Noakhali Madrasa
A video has recently circulated on the social media platform X claiming that the army recovered a large quantity of weapons and ammunition from a madrasa in Noakhali. However, a fact-check by Dismislab has found that the video was created using artificial intelligence (AI).
Blitz newspaper’s editor Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury posted a video from his verified X account on August 8. The post reads, “The army has recovered a large quantity of weapons and ammunition from Alim Madrasa in Noakhali district of Bangladesh.
In this 22-second video, a person can be heard saying, “Large quantity of firearms recovered from madrasa. Based on intelligence information, the army conducted an operation at an Alim madrasa in the Chairman Ghat area of Noakhali. During the operation, a large quantity of firearms was recovered from the madrasa’s kitchen, and the madrasa’s head teacher was detained. The army further stated that those involved would be brought under the law through a proper investigation.”
As of this writing, the video had been viewed more than 15,000 times, and the post had been shared approximately 400 times. In the comments, one person wrote, “NOW the Army realises that this would be used to topple the Government and they would be among the first victims.” One person, posting from an account operated out of India, wrote, “If inspected thoroughly, weapons might be found in India’s madrasas too…” Another wrote, “So many guns and so much ammunition, why is he not finishing off the perpetrator of the arm smuggling case?”
The same video, or images taken from the video, have also circulated from several other Facebook (1, 2, 3) and Instagram accounts. These range from the Facebook page BDResists to “Bichitra News,” which identifies itself as a news outlet and circulated the video on August 5.
Upon observation, Dismislab noted various inconsistencies in the video. In it, the Bangla text on the signboard in the background is unclear, and the English text is misspelled. When the army member moves his hand over the table, the shapes of the weapons and pistols change and distort inconsistently. A person standing in the background is seen to suddenly disappear.
Verification using the AI content detection tool Hive Moderation also found a 99.4% probability that the video was AI-generated, and a 99.1% probability that its audio was AI-generated. For further verification, Dismislab tested the video using Google’s AI detection tool, SynthID. Google SynthID’s results indicated, “The detection of SynthID watermarks in both the audio and visuals of this video indicates it was edited or created using Google AI.”
Furthermore, no news of the army recovering a large quantity of weapons and ammunition from an Alim madrasa in Noakhali could be found in any reliable news media.
In other words, the video circulated with the claim of weapons being recovered from a madrasa in Noakhali is not real — it was created using AI.
