New Delhi: As the CJP protests carried on, several videos emerged online, purportedly showing uniformed soldiers, with their faces covered, coming out in support of the agitating students, and against the government and the Delhi Police.
The Army is yet to officially react to these videos. ThePrint reached out to them on phone and via email to get a response. The report will be updated if and when they respond.
However, government sources told ThePrint that while they are looking into the videos, the main one doing the rounds showing three personnel with face covered and in Army fatigues are fake.
They said that several fake and AI-generated videos have been doing the rounds, including that of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and IAF chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh.
The government is cracking down on several social media handles which are being operated from Pakistan but impersonating Indian accounts in support of the students protests and against the Delhi Police and the government.
Sources in the security establishment said that authenticity of the 3-4 other videos is being ascertained. They suspect the use of AI-generated content while some could be doctored from the original content.
It is learnt that even if the video is found to be doctored with, the original content developer, if actually a soldier, will face action because the military’s social media rules prohibits them from posting in uniform or from units where they are posted.
The rule is there to prevent any compromising visuals or location details being revealed in videos unintentionally to inimical elements.
The sources said that in some videos, there is a voice over and the lip sync does not match with the words being spoken.
In some cases, it is believed that the full video is AI-generated with a false background.
The videos have spoken about how agniveers will come out in support of the students once relieved from the forces by end of this year. Some of the videos use caste factors.
The Army had last year revised its social-media policy to allow “passive participation” on select platforms such as Instagram, X, YouTube, Quora among others.
As per the new direction, personnel may only view or monitor content on these platforms, but active engagement remains banned. This means that soldiers are not allowed to post, share, comment, react, message or upload content.
Prior to this, rules barred personnel from having any social media handles.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)