Fact Check: Army Chief Gen. Dwivedi threatens to nuke Pakistan? No, video is AI-manipulated
A video has been circulating online, claiming it shows General Upendra Dwivedi threatening Pakistan with nuclear attack.
By - Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The video shows the Chief of Army Staff, General Upendra Dwivedi, threatening Pakistan with nuclear attack.
Fact:The claim is false. The viral video has been manipulated by merging AI-generated audio.
Hyderabad: A video of the Chief of Army Staff, General Upendra Dwivedi, allegedly stating that if Pakistan does not behave well, we will not back down in nuking them, has been circulating on social media.
In the video, General Dwivedi could be heard saying, “Blood and water cannot flow together (in Hindi). Blood and water cannot flow together (in English). If Pakistan does not behave properly, then it will have to face the serious and earth-shattering consequences of that decision. Even if we have to nuke them, we will not back down.”
An X user shared the video with the caption, “Seriously? Has this Indian general gone mad or what? Is he issuing nuclear threats against Pakistan?” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the video has been manipulated using AI.
Video’s source
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframe led us to a nine-minute video published by Hindustan Times on November 17, titled ‘Army Chief Gen. Dwivedi's Message To Pak On Sponsoring Terror; ‘Whoever Supports Terrorism Will…’’
The viral clip in this video appears at the 0:27-second mark, where Gen. Dwivedi does say, “Blood and water cannot flow together.” However, this is immediately followed by “Talks and terror cannot be together,” not the statement claiming “If Pakistan does not behave properly, then they will have to face the serious and earth-shattering consequences of that decision. Even if we have to nuke them, we will not back down” as portrayed in the viral video.
We listened to the complete video and did find Gen. Dwivedi warning Pakistan against state-sponsored terrorism. Speaking on India’s security and defence preparedness, the Army Chief emphasised that “whoever supports terrorism will face action.” However, we did not find him threatening Pakistan with nuclear attack.
Inconsistencies in the video
We found that Gen. Dwivedi’s voice does match his natural voice, but after the ‘Blood and water cannot flow together’ statement, there is a sudden jump in the pitch of the voice, indicating that the audio has been manipulated. We also noticed Hindi words were not pronounced correctly.
Detection tool result
Finally, we extracted the audio from the video and subjected it to analysis on Deepfake-O-Meter. Two of its detectors flagged that the audio is likely AI-generated with a 100 per cent confidence score.
Therefore, we conclude that the viral video has been manipulated by merging AI-generated audio.
