Woman politician in Pakistan's Balochistan province targeted with AI-generated clip

Published on October 21, 2024 at 10:18
Updated on December 25, 2024 at 04:20
3 min read
By Rimal FARRUKH, AFP Pakistan

In socially-conservative Pakistan, an AI-generated clip purporting to show a female politician hugging a provincial male chief minister has been shared in social media posts. The clip was created using a photo of politician Meena Majeed with current President Asif Ali Zardari that predated his election to the post.

"Shamelessness has no limits. This is an insult to Baloch culture," read the Urdu-language caption to an AI-generated clip posted on X on September 29, 2024.

The short clip appears to show Meena Majeed, a member of the Balochistan provincial assembly, in a green shalwar kameez hugging Sarfraz Bugti, the province's chief minister. Both are members of the Pakistan People's Party.

Such public displays of affection are considered culturally inappropriate in conservative, Muslim-majority Pakistan, especially among people who are not married.

The spread of such false information can greatly tarnish a woman's reputation and career; in more conservative parts of the South Asian country, this can even endanger their safety.

Screenshot of the false X post, captured on October 16, 2024

The same clip was shared on TikTok and YouTube, with comments on the posts containing abusive language directed at Majeed.

An analysis of the clip shows it was taken from the TikTok account "@gullzadibaloch1212" -- an account that is not longer accessible -- and a watermark in the top-right corner that reads "Vidu".

According to an article by Chinese state media Xinhua news agency, Vidu is a "large video generation model" that was developed by Chinese AI company ShengShu Technology and Tsinghua University (archived link).

An instructional video on the Vidu website shows how it is capable of creating short, four-second clips using a reference image and text prompts (archived link).

Below is a screenshot of the instructional video on the Vidu website showing how a clip can be generated using a reference image and text prompts, with the Vidu watermark on the finished clip highlighted by AFP:

Screenshot of an instructional video on the Vidu website showing how a clip can be generated using a reference image and text prompts

A reverse image search on Google using a keyframe from the clip shared online led to a photo of Majeed shared on her official X account on December 1, 2023 (archived link).

The photo shows her in the same outfit in the same location, but she is instead standing next to Asif Ali Zardari, who was elected president for a second time in March 2024 (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and Majeed's photo from X (right):

Screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and Majeed's photo from X (right)

The AI-generated video was earlier debunked by Pakistani fact-checking organisation Soch Fact Check (archived link).

Hany Farid, a professor from University of California, Berkeley who specialises in the analysis of digital images, also told AFP in an email that the video is AI-generated.

"The most noticeable artefact is visible when Meena Majeed moves to the left and you can see the person behind her is highly distorted," he said on October 17.

"This is because the generative AI struggles to create content from nothing, so artefacts are often visible when parts of the original image are revealed."

Women politicians are frequent targets of disinformation online, and AFP previously debunked a similar deepfake targeting Pakistan's former first lady Bushra Bibi here.

December 25, 2024Metadata updated