Videos made with Veo-3 circulate amid Iran-Israel Conflict claims
Three videos have recently circulated on social media, claiming to show a woman running to escape an Iranian missile strike or Israeli citizens pleading with Iran to stop the attack. Many users assumed the videos were real and reacted accordingly. However, fact-checking reveals that all three videos were generated using Google’s artificial intelligence video model, Veo-3.
One of the videos posted on Facebook shows a man dressed in military uniform holding a boom mic and speaking. The caption reads, “Stop the Iran attack. 50% is already gone. We’ve lost the war.” In the eight-second clip, the man is heard saying in English, “Iran, we beg you. Please stop the attacks. Half of Israel is gone. We surrender. Just stop the destraction.” Rubble appears in the background. The video also displays the logo of the news outlet Somoy TV. The same video was posted by several Facebook pages and groups (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Dismislab traced the original version of the video circulated on Facebook by identifying a TikTok account name shown in the bottom-right corner. The eight-second video was posted on June 15 from a TikTok account named “positivevideosonly389” and matches the Facebook version exactly. A watermark labeled “Veo” appears in the corner of the original video. Veo is a text-to-video AI model developed by Google DeepMind, which generates video clips based on written prompts. Additionally, the video was not found on the official Facebook page or YouTube channel of Somoy TV.
Another video has been circulating on YouTube, showing a female reporter speaking to a distressed man. At the beginning of the clip, the reporter says, “Please,” to which the man responds, “Please leave me alone.” The reporter then says, “Israel is the only country for us.” The man follows by saying, “Sir, can you tell us what happened here?” This video has also been shared on Facebook.
The dialogue in this video is entirely inconsistent. There is no logical connection between the distressed man and the female reporter’s conversation. At the end of the video, the distressed man himself says, “Sir, can you tell us what happened here?” Although the question sounds like one a reporter might ask, it is being spoken by the victim of the alleged attack. A “Veo” watermark—indicating the use of artificial intelligence—is also visible in the bottom-right corner of the video, confirming it is not real.
Dismislab also identified another video circulating on Facebook. Its caption reads: “How does it feel now? Feels good, doesn’t it? What’s so funny? The days ahead will only get more terrifying. The so-called state of Israel will no longer exist on the world map, Inshallah!” The video shows a woman running and crying out in distress, with an explosion seen behind her. Variations of the video—such as cropped or resized versions—have also been widely shared on social media.
Analysis of the video shows that it also bears the watermark of “Veo,” an AI video generation tool, in the top-right corner. Numerous altered versions of the video—cropped or resized—have been posted on Facebook (1, 2, 3, 4). In these versions, the AI-generated clip is used at the beginning of the video. However, due to resizing, the Veo watermark is no longer visible.
What is Google Veo?
Google Veo-3 is the latest and most advanced AI video generation model developed by Google DeepMind. One of its key features is native audio generation. This means the model can automatically produce matching dialogue, voiceovers, sound effects, and background music that align with the visual content of the video.
For context, on June 13, Israel launched an attack on Iran. The strike killed 78 people, including Iranian military officials and scientists. In response, Iran carried out retaliatory attacks on multiple Israeli cities. Reports say that more than 200 people have been killed so far in the conflict between the two countries (1, 2).
