Aerial footage of a sea of people marching in a coastal city is being widely shared as a recent pro-Palestinian protest in Japan. In the video, people can be seen seemingly holding Palestinian flags and banners.

The video was shared with claims like, “All Israeli Media Shocked! On 20 Aug- 7M Japanese Protest For Palestine.” People also shared this video with hashtags like “Gaza” and “Gaza Under Attack”.

India Today Fact Check found that the viral video is AI-generated.

OUR PROBE

In some of the versions of the viral video, we observed the watermark for a TikTok account called @urika.huh.

We checked this account and found the video in question shared by it on August 21 with an AI disclaimer.

It is noteworthy that this account has shared multiple AI-generated videos with similar captions, implying millions of people in Japan, Korea, and China were protesting in support of Palestine.

We also sent the viral video to Deepfakes Analysis Unit, a consortium of Indian fact-checkers and academics debunking synthetic media. They tested the video using the tool WasitAI, which called the clip AI-generated.

PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTS IN JAPAN

There have been many protests in Japan in solidarity with Palestinians in the past few months. On August 18, people in Tokyo gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s office in response to the ongoing famine and genocide in Palestine. They banged pots and dishes and demanded that the Japanese government impose sanctions on Israel.

Visuals of recent pro-Palestine protests in Japan can be viewed in these news reports. Japan is one of the 28 countries which issued a joint statement in July demanding that the war in Gaza end.

Earlier this month, two more AI-generated videos were shared on social media as pro-Palestine protests in Japan. Our fact-check on these videos can be read here.

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