AI-Manipulated Video of Amish Devgan 'Touching' Amit Shah’s Shoe Viral

AI-detection tool Deepfake-O-Meter revealed that the viral clip was AI-manipulated.

Fact-Check: This video is created using AI and is not real. 

(Source: The Quint) 

A video purportedly featuring News18 managing editor Amish Devgan with Home Minister Amit Shah, in which he is seen holding Shah's shoe with both hands to help Shah lift his leg, is being widely circulated on social media.

Those sharing the video have criticised this act and the state of journalism in India.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as the viral video is manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

What we found: At first, we divided the viral video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• This led us to a YouTube video dated 23 May 2024, on the News18 MP Chhattisgarh channel, featuring an interview with Shah by Devgan.

• This interview took place during Shah's 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign.

• The journalist accompanied Shah for the day, trailing his polling campaigns in Odisha and West Bengal, and travelled in the helicopter with Shah.

• However, the moment shown in the viral video of Devgan touching his shoe never occurred in the longer version

• We looked through the social media profiles of Devgan and found a post from 25 August 2024.

• It featured similar frames to the viral showing Devgan and Shah inside the helicopter. However, none of the images showed the journalist touching his shoe.

• We compared a frame of the viral video and matched it with one of the images posted by Devgan.

Here is a comparison between the two frames.

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

Anomalies in the video: At the moment, when Devgan holds Shah's ankle, his fingers appear conjoined in the viral video. Such disfigurements are often noticed in videos created using AI.

Here is a close-up of the frame. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

• We, then, ran the video on the AI-detection website Deepfake-O-Meter and few of it's tools concluded that the video was created with the help of AI.

Here are the results by Deepfake-O-Meter.

Here are the results by Deepfake-O-Meter.

• With the help of Trusted Information Alliance's Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), we also tried some other AI detection tools such as Hive and AIorNot, which failed to detect the manipulations.

• Was it AI also confirmed that significant parts of the video had been created using AI.

Devgan's clarification: Devgan took to his X page and clarified that the viral video was made with AI on 28 October.

• He also warned, “I assure everyone that I take these malicious actions seriously. I will be taking strict legal action against those responsible and filing a criminal complaint with the appropriate authorities."

Conclusion: The viral video is manipulated using AI and is not real.

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