Old and AI-made clips shared as Delhi protest footage, fact-checkers say
As Delhi protests against the Chief Election Commissioner trended online, The Quint, PIB Fact Check and Delhi Police flagged videos that were old, from other places, or misleadingly described.
Fact-checkers, Delhi Police and the government fact-checking unit have flagged a series of old, unrelated or AI-generated videos and images shared online as footage of the Delhi protests that began on 10 October. According to Organiser, the demonstrations, led by a group calling itself the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), are directed against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
NewsBytes reported on 10 October that about 500 protesters gathered in New Delhi, that police denied permission for the rally, blocked access to Jantar Mantar and enforced prohibitory orders, and that around 500 people were detained. Free Press Journal later reported that CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke announced a rally at Connaught Place on 16 October. Vindhya Satta has not independently verified these accounts.
In a fact-check published on 14 October, The Quint examined a video shared as showing CJP protesters gathering in Delhi despite restrictions. It found the footage shows a rally in Tinsukia, Assam. A reverse image search led it to a Facebook video from October 2025 in which tribal residents reportedly demanded Scheduled Tribe status, land rights and higher daily wages, and it matched the location on Google Maps. PIB Fact Check also called the video old and from Assam, The Quint said, though it added that it could not establish the context of the footage.
Organiser, a weekly publication associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, reported on 13 October that the DCP New Delhi had said on X that police personnel seen near Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in a viral clip were walking through a common passage that all devotees use before removing their shoes. Delhi Police said the clip was circulated deliberately with malicious intent and that legal action was being initiated. The report added that PIB Fact Check described a clip shared as live Jantar Mantar footage as being from an earlier protest at Aligarh Muslim University, and a garbage-dumping video as showing a sanitation workers strike in Panipat in August 2026.
In a second report on 14 October, Organiser said a video of two army personnel beating a man, posted on X on 12 October with a claim that the army had been deployed against Delhi protesters, dates from April 2017 and shows an incident in South Kashmir. It cited contemporary reports by The Indian Express and Deccan Herald identifying the man as a student of Pulwama Degree College.
Readers who see a dramatic video during a political event can check its date, location and original source before sharing it, for example through a reverse image search of its frames, as The Quint did, or by consulting PIB Fact Check posts. Vindhya Satta does not take a position on the protests and has relied on the published reports named here.
