From Kazakhstan to Arunachal: How Fake Videos Fuel Border Misinformation
Viral videos claiming that China has seized Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh and that troops are engaged in border clashes have triggered alarm and anger online. OBC traced the footage to unrelated sources, including a 2023 military briefing and a video originally posted by a Kazakhstan-based account, exposing how old and AI-generated content is being presented as breaking news.
Amid recurring friction along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Indian and Chinese troops have faced off at multiple locations in Arunachal Pradesh over the past few days. Amid these tensions, numerous posts containing misinformation began circulating rapidly online, spreading distorted narratives about the ongoing conflict.
Several viral videos have flooded social media, with posts alleging that China has seized control of Arunachal Pradesh, while another features dramatic footage purportedly showing border clashes and wounded soldiers.
However, the OBC found these claims to be misleading.
The viral claims
‘Arunachal under attack’
On 25 October, a West Asia-based X account, Arab-Military (@ashrafnsier) posted a video of military troops engaged in combat, with several soldiers appearing to be injured in a war zone. The Arabic caption translates to, ‘The borders between India and China this morning.’
As of 26 October, the post had garnered more than 1m views, 7.2k likes, and 1.2k reposts.
Several other social media accounts in India have also circulated similar videos. The Instagram page ‘war_threats’ shared the same visuals with the caption, ‘BREAKING: China and India have fire exchanges in a disputed territory of Arunachal Pradesh due to ongoing face-offs and a standoff in Arunachal Pradesh (eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control/LAC).
-Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Director General Shatrujeet Kapur stated that face-offs with Chinese troops had occurred at several points along the Arunachal Pradesh border and were still continuing.
#china #Geopolitics #trending #india #borderconflict’.
This post quickly gained traction, receiving 1.2 million views, 20.6k likes and 831 reshares.
Many users flooded the comments with frustration, sharing concerns about the government’s priorities and possible political influence on the armed forces. One user commented, “It’s a serious concern for the country, however our govt is busy fighting with Gen Z than fixing up the border issues.” Another user commented, ‘Army is a puppet of Sangh Parivar?”
We analysed the viral post, conducted a detailed search of official records, and found no evidence to corroborate the events depicted in the video.
We also closely inspected the video keyframes and observed that the soldiers’ uniforms bear the marking ‘AOK-CCO.’ We found that AOK in Kazakh and ССО in Russian are abbreviations for the Special Operations Forces of the Kazakh Armed Forces.
We analysed keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search, which led us to a Kazakhstan-based Instagram account that posted the video on July 28.
We also found that the official Instagram account of Kazakhstan’s Special Operations Forces features videos of soldiers weari wearing similar uniforms.
‘The China reign’
A video purporting to show that Lt Gen Girish Kalia stating that China has taken control of Asaphila, Longjou and Taksing Circle in Arunachal Pradesh has gone viral. On 25 October, an X user, India Genz @IndiaGenzzz, shared the video with the caption, ‘Shameful! Lt Gen Girish Kalia (GOC, Spear Corps) says China has taken control of Asaphila, Longju and Taksing Circle in Arunachal Pradesh. Despite requests for supplies, forces are reportedly being directed against Gen Z instead of China. Where is the accountability?’
As of 26 October, the post has received 806k views, 11k likes and 4.2k reposts.
The same claim has also been shared and circulated on various X accounts. The X user NetaNama (@NetaNamax) posted the same video with the caption, ‘INDIA–CHINA BORDER: ARUNACHAL PRADESH
“China’s control over Asaphila, Longju and Taksing Circle is concerning. We’re told to deploy paramilitary forces against Arunachal Pradesh’s Gen Z instead of countering China.”— Lt Gen Girish Kalia, GOC Spear Corps (3 Corps), AVSM, VSM’.
As of 26 October, the post has amassed over 1.6k likes, 47k views and 572 reposts.
Many users posted dark jokes in the comments and challenged India to go to war. One user commented, “It’s about to turn into a world war and GTA 6 still hasn’t dropped, be patient bro.”Another user remarked, “Just go to war ffs, do what russia and ukraine do.”
We conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the video, which led us to an ANI post dated 27 October 2023.
The video shows the press briefing in Kupwara on October 27, 2023, where the then GOC 28 Infantry Division Maj Gen Girish Kalia addressed Pakistani cross-border infiltration along the Line of Control, stating, “In the last 8 months, we’ve had 10 such attempts in our divisional area of responsibility which have resulted in the elimination of 27 terrorists and recovery of large quantities of warlike stores,” while making no mention whatsoever of Chinese control over Arunachal Pradesh.
We then analysed keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search, which led us to the original deepfake post by an X account named ‘The Whistle Blower’. Since this account has been withheld in India, we used web archives to retrieve the posts shared by this account. We found that the account initially shared the video on 25 October.
This account often posts content criticising the Indian military and government. Its profile information shows that it is based in South Asia.
The Fact Check Unit of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) under the Government of India has repeatedly debunked fake news published by this handle, flagging it in past notices as a Pakistan-based account.
In addition, we used DeepFake-o-Meter to assess whether the video was generated using AI.
The results estimated that the video had a 99.9% likelihood of being AI-generated.
Our analysis found that the posts claiming to show recent footage from the current Indo-China conflict in Arunachal Pradesh are false. These viral posts use out-of-context and AI-generated videos to misrepresent them as current events. Numerous social media accounts fabricate the events and manipulate details to mislead the public.
