#FactCheck -AI-Generated Video Falsely Shows Cristiano Ronaldo Chanting “Free Palestine
Executive Summary:
After the reported attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran, a video allegedly showing footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has been widely circulated on social media. In the clip, Ronaldo appears to be holding a Palestinian flag and chanting “Free Palestine.” Several users are sharing the video with the claim that Ronaldo waved the Palestinian flag and raised “Free Palestine” slogans after the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. However, a research by CyberPeace found that the claim is false. The viral clip does not depict a real event and has been generated using artificial intelligence. The fabricated video is being shared online with misleading claims.
Claim
An Instagram user “ham_313_ka_admi” shared the viral video on March 2, 2026. The text on the video reads: “Cristiano Ronaldo waved the Palestinian flag after Khamenei’s death. Mashallah. Free Palestine.”
Fact Check:
To verify the claim, we searched Google using relevant keywords but found no credible news reports supporting the viral claim. We also reviewed the official social media accounts of Cristiano Ronaldo, where no such video or statement was posted. This raised suspicion that the clip might be AI-generated.
To further examine the video, we analyzed it using AI detection tools. The tool Hive Moderation indicated a 99.9% probability that the video was created using artificial intelligence.
We also analyzed the footage using the Sightengine AI detection tool. The results suggested an 80% likelihood that the video was AI-generated. The tool also indicated that the clip may have been created using Sora, an AI video-generation tool.
Conclusion
The viral video claiming that Cristiano Ronaldo waved the Palestinian flag and chanted “Free Palestine” after the death of Ali Khamenei is AI-generated. It does not depict a real incident and is being shared with a misleading claim.
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Executive Summary
A video circulating on social media claims that a Jaguar fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) failed to land during a takeoff and landing exercise held on April 22, 2026, at the Purvanchal Expressway in Uttar Pradesh. The claim suggests that the incident disrupted preparations for “Operation Sindoor.” However, an research by the CyberPeace Research Wing has found the claim to be false.
Claim
The video was shared by a Facebook user, ‘Meera MJ,’ alleging that the Jaguar aircraft could not land during the exercise conducted near Sultanpur. To verify the authenticity of the video, multiple keyframes were extracted and analyzed using reverse image search tools. This led to the original footage shared by ANI on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle on April 22, 2026. The authentic video of the air show does not show any such incident of a failed landing.
Fact Check
A detailed review of ANI’s social media posts also revealed no evidence supporting the viral claim. This strongly indicates that the circulating clip has been digitally manipulated by altering the original footage.
Further corroboration came from a report published by Bhaskar.com, which extensively covered the air show. According to the report, the event featured successful operations by multiple aircraft, including the C-295 transport aircraft landing on the expressway airstrip, followed by Jaguar jets taking off. Sukhoi and Mirage fighter jets also performed takeoff and landing drills, while M17 helicopters carried out commando mock operations. Additionally, the M32 Bhishma aircraft conducted ‘touch and go’
Conclusion:
The viral claim that a Jaguar fighter jet failed to land during the Indian Air Force drill is baseless. The video being circulated is digitally manipulated and does not reflect any real incident.
One of the best forums for many video producers is YouTube. It also has a great chance of generating huge profits. YouTube content producers need assistance to get the most views, likes, comments, and subscribers for their videos and channels. As a result, some people could use YouTube bots to unnaturally raise their ranks on the YouTube site, which might help them get more organic views and reach a larger audience. However, this strategy is typically seen as unfair and can violate the YouTube platform’s terms of service.
As YouTube grows in popularity, so does the usage of YouTube bots. These bots are software programs that may automate operations on the YouTube platform, such as watching, liking, or disliking videos, subscribing to or unsubscribing from channels, making comments, and adding videos to playlists, among others. There have been YouTube bots around for a while. Many YouTubers widely use these computer codes to increase the number of views on their videos and accounts, which helps them rank higher in YouTube’s algorithm. Researchers discovered a new bot that takes private information from YouTube users’ accounts.
CRIL (Cyble Research and Intelligence Labs) has been monitoring new and active malware families CRIL has discovered a new YouTube bot virus capable of viewing, liking, and commenting on YouTube videos. Furthermore, it is capable of stealing sensitive information from browsers and acting as a bot that accepts orders from the Command and Control (C&C) server to carry out other harmful operations.
The Bot Insight
This YouTube bot has the same capabilities as all other YouTube bots, including the ability to view, like, and comment on videos. Additionally, it has the ability to steal private data from browsers and act as a bot that takes commands from a Command and Control (C&C) server for various malicious purposes. Researchers from Cyble discovered the inner workings of this information breach the Youtube bot uses the sample hash(SHA256) e9dac8b677a670e70919730ee65ab66cc27730378b9233d944ad7879c530d312.They discovered that it was created using the.NET compiler and is an executable file with a 32-bit size.
- The virus runs an AntiVM check as soon as it is executed to thwart researchers’ attempts to find and analyze malware in a virtual environment.
- It stops the execution if it finds that it is operating in a regulated setting. If not, it will carry out the tasks listed in the argument strings.
- Additionally, the virus creates a mutex, copies itself to the %appdata% folder as AvastSecurity.exe, and then uses cmd.exe to run.
- The new mutex makes a task scheduler entry and aids in ensuring
- The victim’s system’s installed Chromium browsers are used to harvest cookies, autofill information, and login information by the AvastSecurity.exe program.
- In order to view the chosen video, the virus runs the YouTube Playwright function, passing the previously indicated arguments along with the browser’s path and cookie data.
- YouTube bot uses the YouTube Playwright function to launch the browser environment with the specified parameters and automate actions like watching, liking, and commenting on YouTube videos. The feature is dependent on Microsoft. playwright’s kit.
- The malware establishes a connection to a C2 server and gets instructions to erase the entry for the scheduled task and end its own process, extract log files to the C2 server, download and run other files, and start/stop watching a YouTube movie.
- Additionally, it verifies that the victim’s PC has the required dependencies, including the Playwright package and the Chrome browser, installed. When it gets the command “view,” it will download and install these dependencies if they are missing.
Recommendations
The following is a list of some of the most critical cybersecurity best practices that serve as the first line of defense against intruders. We propose that our readers follow the advice provided below:
- Downloading pirated software from warez/torrent websites should be avoided. Such a virus is commonly found in “Hack Tools” available on websites such as YouTube, pirate sites, etc.
- When feasible, use strong passwords and impose multi-factor authentication.
- Enable automatic software updates on your laptop, smartphone, and other linked devices.
- Use a reputable antivirus and internet security software package on your linked devices, such as your computer, laptop, and smartphone.
- Avoid clicking on suspicious links and opening email attachments without verifying they are legitimate.Inform staff members on how to guard against dangers like phishing and unsafe URLs.
- Block URLs like Torrent/Warez that might be used to propagate malware.To prevent malware or TAs from stealing data, keep an eye on the beacon at the network level.
Conclusion
Using YouTube bots may be a seductive strategy for content producers looking to increase their ranks and expand their viewership on the site. However, the employment of bots is typically regarded as unfair and may violate YouTube’s terms of service. Utilizing YouTube bots carries additional risk because they might be identified, which could lead to account suspension or termination for the user. Mitigating this pressing issue through awareness drives and surveys to determine the bone of contention is best. NonProfits and civil society organizations can bridge the gap between the tech giant and the end user to facilitate better know-how about these unknown bots.
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As technological advancements continue to shape the future, the rise of artificial intelligence brings with it significant potential benefits, yet also raises concerns about the spread of misinformation. Recognising the need for accountability on both ends, on 5th May, during the three-day World News Media Congress 2025 in Kraków, Poland the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) have announced to the public the five core principles for their joint initiative called News Integrity in the Age of AI. The initiative is aimed at fostering dialogue and cooperation between media organisations and technology platforms, and the principles announced are to be a code of practice to be followed by all those taking part. With thousands of public and private media outlets around the world joining the effort, the initiative highlights the shared responsibility of AI developers to ensure that AI systems are trustworthy, safe, and supportive of a reliable news ecosystem. It represents a global call to action to uphold the integrity of news in this age of major influx and curb the growing challenge of misinformation.
The five core principles released focus on:
1. Authorisation of content by the originators is a must prior to its usage in Generative AI tools and models
2. High-quality and up-to-date news content must be recognised by third parties that are benefiting from it
3. There must be a focus on accuracy and attribution, making the original sources of news apparent to the public, promoting transparency
4. Harnessing the plural nature of the news perspectives, which will help AI-driven tools perform better and
5. An invitation to tech companies for an open dialogue with news outlets, facilitating conversation to collaborate and develop standards of transparency, accuracy, and safety.
As this initiative provides a unified platform to address and deliberate on issues affecting the integrity of news, there are also some other technical ways in which misinformation in news caused by AI can be curbed:
1. Encourage the usage of Smaller Generative AI Models: The Large Language Models (LLMs) have to be trained on a range of topics. Businesses don’t require such an expanse of information but just a little that is relevant. A narrower context of information to be sourced from allows better content navigation and a reduced chance of mix-up.
2. Fighting AI hallucination: This is a phenomenon that causes generative AI (such as chatbots and computer vision tools) to present nonsensical and inaccurate outputs as the system perceives objects or patterns that are imperceptible or non-existent to human observers. This occurs as a result of the system trying to focus on both language fluency and stitching information from different sources together. In order to deal with this, one can deploy retrieval augmented generation (RAG). This enables connection with external sources of data that include academic journals, a company’s organisational data, among other things, that would help in providing more accurate, domain-specific content.
Conclusion
This global call to action marks an important step toward fostering unified efforts to combat misinformation. The set of principles introduced is designed to be adaptable, providing a flexible framework that can evolve to address emerging challenges (through dialogue and discussion), including issues like copyright infringement. While AI offers powerful tools to support the news industry, it is essential to emphasise that human oversight remains crucial. These technological advancements are meant to enhance and augment the work of journalists, not replace it, ensuring that the core values of journalism, such as accuracy and integrity, are preserved in the age of AI.
References
● https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/Generative-AI-ethics-8-biggest-concerns
● https://trilateralresearch.com/responsible-ai/using-responsible-ai-to-combat-misinformation
● https://www.omdena.com/blog/the-ethical-role-of-ai-in-media-combating-misformation
● https://2024.jou.ufl.edu/page/ai-and-misinformation
● https://techxplore.com/news/2025-05-ai-counter-misinformation-fact-based.html
● https://www.advanced-television.com/2025/05/06/media-outlets-call-for-ai-companies-news-integrity-protection/https://www.ibm.com/think/insights/ai-misinformation
