Fact Check: Iranian hypersonic missile destroys Tel Aviv building? Video is AI-generated
A video showing strikes on a building is going viral on social media with the claim that it shows Iran attacking Israel on March 12.
By - K Sherly Sharon
Claim:The video shows Iran attacking Israel’s Tel Aviv on March 12 with a hypersonic missile, levelling an entire building.
Fact:Misleading. Although there are reports of Iran striking Israel on March 12, the viral video is AI-generated.
Hyderabad: Amid the prevailing tensions in the Middle East, a video showing a building being blown up is going viral on social media.
The claims accompanying the video state that it shows a hypersonic missile strike in Israel’s Tel Aviv on March 12.
Sharing the video on Instagram, a user wrote, “Explosion Reported in Tel Aviv After Alleged Hypersonic Missile Strike… Footage circulating online appears to show a powerful explosion in Tel Aviv, with some reports claiming the blast may have been caused by a hypersonic missile strike.” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading. There are reports of Iranian airstrikes causing damage in Israel on March 12. However, the viral video is AI-generated.
Does the video show a real incident?
Using reverse image searches of the viral video, we did not find any news reports sharing the visuals, stating that they show real footage from Tel Aviv.
According to news reports, March 12 marks the day 12 of the continued violence in the Middle East, with Iran attacking not just Israel but also other Gulf countries. CNN live coverage and Democracy Now have published reports on March 12 that discuss Iran’s continued strikes on the countries.
Discrepancies in video
A closer inspection of the video shows visual discrepancies, which are usual signs of the presence of AI-generated content in the video. The video shows one building at the beginning of the video. After the blast, only one of the buildings was reduced to rubble; the other part now sports an entirely new side.
We also see debris from the blast fall on the road, but a few seconds into the video, we can see that the debris disappears into thin air.
To check whether the video contains any AI-generated content, we used an AI detection tool, Sight Engine. The tool determined that the video is 89 per cent likely to be AI-generated.
The same results were confirmed by another tool, Hive Moderation, which stated that the video is 99.9 per cent likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.
The viral video does not show a hypersonic missile strike in Israel on March 12. It is AI-generated; therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral claims are misleading.
