Claim: A video shows a Pakistan Army soldier admitting that the people of Tirah Valley are facing injustice at the hands of the state.
Fact: The clip is AI-generated.
On 25 January, an X user who Soch Fact Check has consistently fact-checked in the past posted a video (archive) of a Pakistan Army soldier admitting to the injustices done to the people of the Tirah valley. The post reads: “The neighbors openly admit it themselves: ‘We are oppressors. We are not human. May God destroy us.’
#TirahValley”
The video shows the soldier saying [translated from Urdu]:
“I am standing here in Valley Tirah right now, and the injustice being done to these people is very unjust. I swear to God, it is not a matter of justice. But what can we do? May Allah punish them in such a way that no one who has a hand in this can get up. That is why those who oppress these people are called oppressors.”
Residents of the Tirah Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have begun evacuating their homes amid fears of an impending military operation against the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. The region has also been hit by severe snowfall, adding to the existing hardships of residents caught up in the process of leaving their homes.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check analysed the video and found that it was AI-generated.
The hair and mustache of the soldier are airbrushed while his skin is unnaturally smooth lacking blemishes or texture, an indication that AI was used. We also noticed that “AI-generated” appears at the bottom left of the clip but the user does not acknowledge it in the caption of the post or otherwise.
Furthermore, a TikTok user named “@804imrankhan154” also appears in the clip.Taking cues from this, Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the clip and found that it was indeed uploaded by this TikTok user (archive) on 22 January.
This TikTok video has a label “Contains AI-generated media”(see image below).
TikTok video contains a label warning users that it is AI-generated.
An analysis of the above TikTok user’s account shows that he has uploaded other videos that are labelled as AI-generated:
The TikTok user has uploaded several AI-generated videos.
Furthermore, the reverse search also yielded the same Facebook video (archive), which, like the TikTok clip, appears to be the earliest version (uploaded 22 January) but lacks any overlaid text or music. This Facebook user also appears to have uploaded multiple AI-generated clips on his account.
Soch Fact Check ran both the Facebook and TikTok versions through AI detection tools, which confirm that the clip circulating online is indeed AI-generated. Hive moderation is one such tool. For the Facebook clip, it yielded a probability of 99.5%, which means “the video is likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content”.
Hive Moderation results for the Facebook version of the same clip.
For the same TikTok video, Hive returned a probability of 99.8%, indicating that “overall, the video likely contains AI-generated or deepfake content”.
Hive Moderation results for the Facebook version of the same clip.
Moreover, running both versions through the Zhuque AI Detection Assistant also reveals that AI was used. It yielded consistently high scores of 79.03% and 86.44% for both the Facebook and TikTok videos, respectively, labeling them as “likely AI-generated”.
Virality
The video appeared on X here and here.
On Facebook here, here. and here.
On TikTok here.
Conclusion: The video of a Pakistan Army soldier saying that injustices are being committed against the people of Tirah Valley is AI-generated.
Background image in cover photo: Wikipedia
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