#FactCheck - Viral image claiming to show injury marks of the MP Kangana Ranaut slapped is fake & misleading

Introduction

‍

Two of the most influential voices offered strikingly divergent visions of humanity’s technological future in May 2026. On one side of the equation was Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, who spoke of a future in which intelligence would be a "service like  electricity or water," available on a metered basis and powered by massive AI infrastructure. On the other side was Leo XIV, the Pope of the Catholic Church, whose encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, presented the Church's most substantial response to AI, presenting the technology not simply as a technical innovation but also as a crucial moral, social, and civilizational challenge.

The differences in their views run much deeper than merely those regarding control and development. At issue is a conflict in understanding intelligence, the purpose of technology, and the dignity of man. While Altman saw intelligence as an abundant economic factor, one that could be produced, distributed, and consumed, Leo XIV emphasized that intelligence is indissociable from the person and that we should be wary of turning human potential into mere merchandise. Their clash of visions can essentially be understood as two different answers to the question: What is a human being, and to whose service should technology be devoted?

‍

Intelligence as Infrastructure

‍

Altman implies that artificial intelligence will follow the trajectory of electricity in industrial society, where the utility became available everywhere as part of the bedrock of society. The ultimate goal is to generate abundance. Cognitive ability will become cheaper and more readily available until it is so inexpensive that it is built into everything.

From the perspective of the business, this is compelling. In many ways modern AI already has infrastructure-like properties. Programmers, businesses, governments, and even individuals are using intelligence as a commodity delivered by a centralized platform and API in a way similar to how previous generations would have used the electricity grid. Altman is essentially predicting that this trend will reach its ultimate form, where intelligence becomes a utility.

There are several assumptions inherent in this utility metaphor; however, utilities are never neutral technologies; they are all forms of governance, ownership, and control. It is not merely the resource being delivered that makes electricity grids, telephone systems, and water infrastructure powerful but the institutions that mediate access to those resources. In Altman's statement "people will buy it from us," there is a political question inherent: Who does the infrastructure of cognition belong to?

Altman himself is also concerned with these issues, often reiterating that this technology could lead to an unprecedented concentration of power and wealth. Yet this concern is a paradox, as truly democratized artificial intelligence does not appear possible without immense capital investment, colossal data centers, proprietary models, and a monopolization of talent. The path to making intelligence universally available appears to lie through unprecedented centralization.

‍

The Vatican's Response: Beyond Technology

‍

Magnifica Humanitas approaches this from a different perspective. It is not, fundamentally, a document on AI policy but on social philosophy, rooted in the Catholic tradition of social teaching. Just as Rerum Novarum, published in 1891, had explored the social implications of industrial capitalism, Leo XIV views AI as a new juncture in humankind's engagement with technology and power.

Two biblical images are recurring throughout the encyclical: Babel and Jerusalem. Babel, the archetype of technical ambition without purpose or moral intent, is an effort to reorder and recenter human society based on conformity, centralization, and the delusion of self-sufficiency. Jerusalem, rebuilt under Nehemiah, is an image of collective reconstruction based on participation and responsibility.

The symbolic weight is critical. Leo XIV is not arguing that technology in itself is inherently dangerous. He is, rather, suggesting that the tools of technology will inherently contain and perpetuate whatever values, incentives, and priorities of the architects and wielders of these technologies. The question is not therefore whether AI should exist, but rather whether it increases human flourishing or enhances systems of control.

This provides what is likely the most significant realization within the encyclical that AI and human intelligence are categories distinct in kind, not in degree. AI can simulate, calculate, and compute, but it can never possess awareness, ethical responsibility, embodiment, or meaningful relationships. As such, decisions impacting human life can no longer be deferred to algorithms in a manner that negates the human good.

‍

The Problem of Power

‍

The most evident clash between Altman's vision and Magnifica Humanitas lies in power dynamics.

The utility model of Altman places the assumption that intelligence can be centrally controlled and widely disseminated. However, the Vatican perceives major political consequences from the concentration of cognitive ability. According to the encyclical, this kind of concentration can lead to major political problems because small groups are given immense power over the economy, public debate, and democracy by possessing the necessary control over data, computation, and the network.

This idea is becoming more prominent in recent research. Experts like Kate Crawford, for instance, have described AI as 'a registry of power' in which systems build up hierarchies of social, political, and economic power. Digital colonialism scholars also show that the control of the network of intelligence under a few transnational corporations may diminish power that would otherwise reside with local authorities and democratic institutions.

The problem, seen from this point of view, does not simply address technology but sovereignty itself. If intelligence is provided as a metered service within private platforms, the access to knowledge, reason, and decision-making tools might rest with entities outside the public sphere, unconcerned with democracy.

The Vatican's solution relies on the principle of subsidiarity; decisions should be taken at the lowest possible levels, respecting the autonomy of individuals, communities, and local institutions. This principle directly contradicts the proposals that see cognitive infrastructure located within a few multinational organizations.

‍

The Hidden Labour Behind AI

‍

A particularly important segment of Magnifica Humanitas addresses the invisible labor of the AI economy. 

While discourse on AI frequently conceptualizes it as an intangible or ethereal technology residing within "the cloud," the opposite is in fact the case. AI relies on the unseen labors of data annotators, content moderators, miners harvesting rare earth metals, construction workers creating data centers, and technicians repairing digital infrastructure. In many cases, these workers exist in marginal situations; investigations have revealed poor wages, minimal rights, and psychologically damaging working conditions, especially for content moderators and data annotators in the Global South. Critics contend that the AI of today exists on the backbone of an unacknowledged global workforce that is shielded from consumers of AI technology. In the encyclical, this idea of the AI economy is framed in terms of human dignity, the standard by which all progress, technological or otherwise, must be measured. Progress cannot be defined solely in terms of efficiency and productivity but must be defined by its consequences for workers, society, and human relationships. While the technology of AI may confer tremendous value to a few, it must not do so at the expense of the humanity of others. It gives a key critique of Altman’s utility model that the appeal of abundant intelligence often focuses on products while neglecting the social and material conditions in which it is produced.

‍

A Clash of Anthropologies

‍

The deepest philosophical disagreement of Altman's and Leo XIV's is over anthropology, i.e., who human beings actually are. 

Altman’s view presumes an ability to quantify and allocate the human capacity for intelligence. The more intelligent the society, the better the society; and intelligence becomes the prime causal factor whose production must be maximized by the machine.

The Vatican rejects this fundamental principle. According to the argument of Magnifica Humanitas, human value is not located in intelligent productivity or efficiency or economic productivity. Dignity is non-conditional and cannot be reduced to measures of performance. One has dignity not because one can compute, produce, and optimize, but because one is a person.

The implications of this difference are vast. If intelligence is principally treated as an economic asset, then humans will constantly have to deal with being judged as being of greater or lesser use compared to the machine. If dignity is intrinsic, machines must remain instruments of the flourishing of the human, irrespective of machine efficiency. In sum, this is not a debate over machines. It is a debate over whether society is going to be defined according to an ideology of optimization or an ideology of humanity.

‍

Conclusion

‍

The juxtaposition of Sam Altman’s model of utility and Leo XIV’s idea of Magnifica Humanitas defines one of the key intellectual arguments of our times. Altman presents a vision of abundance, efficiency, and humanly impossible intellectual capacity. Leo XIV represents what happens when intelligence is divorced from the demands of ethics, democracy, and human dignity; when the demands they represent only contribute to its ultimate capacity to wound the needs it serves. 

It is not whether we will build machines more and more intelligent; it is what politics and values will govern these machines. When intelligence becomes a service, whose interests will govern the machine, who will write the rules, and who will be the direct beneficiaries? When dignity is the source from which man and machine alike emerge, the service must not be judged on what the machine does best but on what it can do for man. The ultimate question is whether we will be able to maintain a view of ourselves that is larger than just our capacity to engineer.

‍

References:

1. Atlas of AI, Crawford, Kate. Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021.
2. Pope Leo XIV. Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. Vatican City: Holy See, 2026.
3. Pope Leo XIII. Rerum Novarum. Vatican City: Holy See, 1891.
4. Pope John Paul II. Laborem Exercens. Vatican City: Holy See, 1981.
5. Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Dignitas Infinita. Vatican City: Holy See, 2024.
6. International Theological Commission. Quo Vadis, Humanitas? Thinking About Christian Anthropology in the Face of Some Scenarios on the Future of Humanity. Vatican City, 2026.
7. Nick Lichtenberg. "Sam Altman Admits AI Is Killing the Labor-Capital Balance—and Says Nobody Knows What to Do About It." Fortune, 12 March 2026.

‍

Executive Summary

‍

A video is being widely shared on social media showing two men seated on chairs when police personnel arrive and begin assaulting them. A flag of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), can also be seen in the footage. The video is being circulated with the claim that during the first phase of polling held on April 23, 2026, two TMC workers were issuing voter slips near a polling booth when security forces reached the spot and beat them. However, research  by the CyberPeace Research Wing found the claim to be false. The footage is not recent and has no connection to the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.

‍

Claim:
‍

Social media users alleged that police assaulted TMC workers during the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections. An X user, Abhimanyu Singh, shared the clip claiming that two “peaceful” TMC workers were sitting near polling stations issuing voter slips when a policeman slapped and beat them with a baton, forcing them to flee.

• https://x.com/Abhimanyu1305/status/2047317736825790549
• https://archive.ph/0ceXH

‍

‍

‍

Fact Check:
‍

To verify the claim, keyframes from the viral video were subjected to a reverse image search. This led to the same video being found on a Facebook page named Canning News, where it had been uploaded in 2023. The caption stated: “Take a look at the situation in Basanti, Canning, on election day.”

• https://www.facebook.com/reel/786333173205428

‍

‍

Further searches found the clip published by News18 Bangla on July 6, 2023. The report described unrest during the 2023 Panchayat elections, stating that allegations of bomb throwing had surfaced in Basanti the previous night. On the morning of polling, a bomb was reportedly recovered from the roadside, creating panic in the area.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZlwVKt65eg&t=2s

‍

‍

According to the report, police intervened to control the situation and took action wherever crowds had gathered. The footage showed police dispersing people with batons and, at times, physically confronting individuals.

‍

Conclusion:

‍

The viral claim is misleading. The video is from the 2023 Panchayat elections in West Bengal and is being falsely linked to the recent 2026 Assembly elections.

‍

Introduction

India's National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is set to approach the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to recommend mandating a KYC-based system for verifying children's age under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act. The decision to approach or send recommendations to MeitY was taken by NCPCR in a closed-door meeting held on August 13 with social media entities. In the meeting, NCPCR emphasised proposing a KYC-based age verification mechanism. In this background, Section 9 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 defines a child as someone below the age of 18, and Section 9 mandates that such children have to be verified and parental consent will be required before processing their personal data.

Requirement of Verifiable Consent Under Section 9 of DPDP Act

Regarding the processing of children's personal data, Section 9 of the DPDP Act, 2023, provides that for children below 18 years of age, consent from parents/legal guardians is required. The Data Fiduciary shall, before processing any personal data of a child or a person with a disability who has a lawful guardian, obtain verifiable consent from the parent or lawful guardian. Additionally, behavioural monitoring or targeted advertising directed at children is prohibited. 

Ongoing debate on Method to obtain Verifiable Consent

Section 9 of the DPDP Act gives parents or lawful guardians more control over their children's data and privacy, and it empowers them to make decisions about how to manage their children's online activities/permissions. However, obtaining such verifiable consent from the parent or legal guardian presents a quandary. It was expected that the upcoming 'DPDP rules,' which have yet to be notified by the Central Government, would shed light on the procedure of obtaining such verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian.

However, In the meeting held on 18th July 2024, between MeitY and social media companies to discuss the upcoming Digital Personal Data Protection Rules (DPDP Rules), MeitY stated that it may not intend to prescribe a ‘specific mechanism’ for Data Fiduciaries to verify parental consent for minors using digital services. MeitY instead emphasised obligations put forth on the data fiduciary under section 8(4) of the DPDP Act to implement “appropriate technical and organisational measures” to ensure effective observance of the provisions contained under this act. 

In a recent update, MeitY held a review meeting on DPDP rules, where they focused on a method for determining children's ages. It was reported that the ministry is making a few more revisions before releasing the guidelines for public input.

CyberPeace Policy Outlook

CyberPeace in its policy recommendations paper published last month, (available here) also advised obtaining verifiable parental consent through methods such as Government Issued ID, integration of parental consent at ‘entry points’ like app stores,  obtaining consent through consent forms, or drawing attention from foreign laws such as California Privacy Law, COPPA, and developing child-friendly SIMs for enhanced child privacy.

CyberPeace in its policy paper also emphasised that when deciding the method to obtain verifiable consent, the respective platforms need to be aligned with the fact that verifiable age verification must be done without compromising user privacy. Balancing user privacy is a question of both technological capabilities and ethical considerations. 

DPDP Act is a brand new framework for protecting digital personal data and also puts forth certain obligations on Data Fiduciaries and provides certain rights to Data Principal. With upcoming ‘DPDP Rules’ which are expected to be notified soon, will define the detailed procedure for the implementation of the provisions of the Act. MeitY is refining the DPDP rules before they come out for public consultation. The approach of NCPCR is aimed at ensuring child safety in this digital era. We hope that MeitY comes up with a sound mechanism for obtaining verifiable consent from parents/lawful guardians after taking due consideration to recommendations put forth by various stakeholders, expert organisations and concerned authorities such as NCPCR. 

References

1. https://www.moneycontrol.com/technology/dpdp-rules-ncpcr-to-recommend-meity-to-bring-in-kyc-based-age-verification-for-children-article-12801563.html
2. https://pune.news/government/ncpcr-pushes-for-kyc-based-age-verification-in-digital-data-protection-a-new-era-for-child-safety-215989/#:~:text=During%20this%20meeting%2C%20NCPCR%20issued,consent%20before%20processing%20their%20data
3. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/ncpcr-likely-to-seek-clause-for-parents-consent-under-data-protection-rules-101724180521788.html
4. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/dpdp-act-2023-and-the-isssue-of-parental-consent

‍