Doctored image of 'smiling' Indian wrestlers in police custody shared online
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 1, 2023 at 11:18
- 5 min read
- By Uzair RIZVI, AFP India
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"After creating a drama, this is their real face, they are part of the group that tries to break our India," reads the Hindi-language caption of the false Facebook post shared here on May 28, 2023.
The accompanying doctored image shows wrestlers Vinesh Phogat (left) and her sister Sangeeta Phogat (right) in the foreground and their associates in the background, all smiling along with Delhi police personnel.
Indian police dragged away and detained two Olympic wrestlers and dozens of others demanding the arrest of the sport's federation chief over allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation, AFP reported on May 28, 2023. They were attempting to march to India's new parliament just as it was being inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi (archived link).
The female athletes were released the next day after being charged with rioting and obstructing public servants, local media reported (archived link).
The athletes have been protesting in New Delhi since April to demand the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is also a ruling party lawmaker (archived link).
The Indian Olympic Association formed a panel in January to investigate the claims against Singh, but the athletes say there has been insufficient action since then.
Singh has denied the allegations, claiming a conspiracy to smear his reputation and force him out of India's parliament.
Identical images were shared on Twitter here and here, as well as on Facebook.
However, the image has been doctored.
Doctored image
A reverse image search on Google found the original photo published here by the Twitter account of journalist Mandeep Punia on May 28, 2023 (archived link).
"Vinesh Phogat has also been taken into custody by the Delhi Police," reads the Hindi tweet.
None of the people in the photo posted by Punia are smiling -- both Phogat sisters and the other wrestlers have neutral expressions. The facial expression of the policewoman sitting behind Sangeeta remains similar in both images.
Punia has reported extensively about the wrestlers since the beginning of their demonstration in April. He posted a tweet on May 28, 2023 confirming his own detention along with some of the wrestlers. He posted another tweet about 20 minutes later, saying: "I have been released from police custody" (archived links here, here, here).
"Vinesh shared her selfie with me on WhatsApp that I posted on my Twitter," Punia told AFP on May 29, 2023.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored image (left) and the original photo from Punia's tweet (right)
Bajrang Punia, one of the protesting wrestlers and husband of Sangeeta Phogat, tweeted on May 28, 2023 that the smiling image of his wife and sister-in-law was "fake" (archived link). Mandeep Punia, the journalist, and Bajrang Punia, the wrestler, are not related.
Bajrang Punia's tweet reads: "IT cell is spreading fake images. We are making it clear that we will file a police complaint against those who are posting these doctored images."
Face editing app
The doctored photo of wrestlers smiling appears to have been created using image-generative artificial intelligence software.
AFP ran the original image through FaceApp, a popular application used to edit selfies. Tech news site The Verge reported in 2017 that FaceApp uses neural networks to add smiles to any photo of a face (archived links here and here).
FaceApp produced a similar image to the one circulating in false posts on social media.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the original photo (left), a doctored image reproduced by AFP using FaceApp (centre) and the doctored image shared on Facebook with the false claim (right):
The manipulated FaceApp image also adds a dimple to Vinesh Phogat's right cheek. Checks of other original photos of her found she does not have a dimple on her right cheek when she smiles.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored image (left) that shows a dimple, and a 2022 photo of Vinesh from her verified Instagram account (right) that does not show a dimple (archived link):
AFP has previously debunked a similar claim shared in Korea which also featured a photo altered with FaceApp.
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