In early October, large crowds appeared to gather on winding streets under a full moon as supporters of imprisoned former Pakistani leader Imran Khan marched to the capital, Islamabad, to demand his release. An image that appears to have been shared with false claims that it was what it showed. march. However, there were signs that the image had been generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
The caption of the image, written in a mix of Urdu, English and Arabic, shared on Facebook on October 4, reads: “Peshawar caravan leaves for D-Chowk. A night to remember. We… I worship You (Allah) and seek Your help.” , 2024.
Peshawar is the capital of Mr. Khan’s power base in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and D-Chowk refers to the Islamabad interchange located near major buildings such as Parliament House, Presidential Palace, and Supreme Court (Archived link).
The image, which has been shared more than 140 times, shows a long trail of people and vehicles moving under the moonlight on a road winding through a hill. There was a watermark in the top left corner that said “Bilal AI”.
Screenshot of false Facebook post taken on October 17, 2024
The post came as activists from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party began driving from Khyber Pakhtankhwa to Islamabad, but were met with a shipping container blockade and a volley of tear gas. (archive link).
The capital was on lockdown and security forces swarmed in with mobile internet cut off as supporters of the jailed former leader tried to take to the streets in protest.
Khan has been in jail since 2023 on several charges, some of which are still pending in court, and he claimed the charges were aimed at preventing him from returning to public office.
The image was also shared on Facebook, Threads, and YouTube with similar false claims.
Comments on the post showed that some people believe the image is real.
“People are coming out now,” one person wrote.
“Don’t mess with the rush of people. You (government) will destroy yourself,” said another.
Signs of AI
Siwei Liu, director of the Media Forensics Institute at the University at Buffalo, told AFP on October 16 that the images had visual inconsistencies that suggested they were generated by AI.
“The proportions of people in the images are inconsistent, and some people appear disproportionately small,” he says.
Below is an image that Lyu sent to AFP highlighting the discrepancies.
Screenshot of an AI-generated image illustrating discrepancies in human proportions.
Furthermore, although the images that were circulated appeared to show a full moon, at the time Khan’s supporters were marching into Islamabad, the moon was in its waning phase (archived link).
AFP has repeatedly exposed misinformation about Khan.
