A video circulating on Facebook claims to be a combination of three scenarios. Dubai’s skyscraper Burj Khalifa collapses. Iranian people are in a panic. and a jet missile attack on a military truck in the desert.
All three scenarios were fabricated using artificial intelligence and falsely portray the current conflict and tensions between Iran and the United Arab Emirates following last Saturday’s attacks by the United States and Israel on Iranian forces and their leaders.
A video posted by a FB user on March 1st has the following caption:
“Iran’s Kawawa Manga Tao Sa In’s Pinsara Sa Dubai”
(The damage in Dubai and the people of Iran are in a dire situation).”
VERA Files points out red flags in videos and shares the results of its AI detection tools.
The video contained several red flags that suggested it was fake.
- The Burj Khalifa leans like a solid column and falls in one piece, but actual structural collapse does not occur this way.
- There are no dust clouds or debris during the tilting stage. An actual collapse of this magnitude would immediately generate large amounts of debris and dust before it hits the ground.
- While the tilt is occurring, the surrounding city appears completely undisturbed.
- The audio suggests people are panicking, but the video shows otherwise.
- In the second clip, the woman holding the phone has no face, and the phone itself appears distorted.
- The national flag purported to represent Iran appears in various sizes and is blue in some parts of the video. The colors of the Iranian flag are green, white, and red.
- Missile trajectories, explosions, and tracks all have an unnaturally smooth, over-rendered quality typical of AI-generated footage.
- Trucks and explosions do not share the same light source or shadow direction.
- The fireballs and smoke are too bright, too round, and too evenly spaced, resembling video game graphics.
Results from the Hive Moderation AI detector flagged videos in circulation as being generated by AI 99.8% of the time.
Burj Khalifa has not collapsed. However, it was evacuated as a precautionary measure. There was no damage to high-rise buildings, but smoke could be seen nearby due to the interception that occurred in the downtown area.
Falling debris from these interceptions caused minor damage elsewhere in the city, including a small fire in front of the Burj Al Arab Hotel and debris falling on residential areas.
Meanwhile, reliable news sources did not report the supposed missile attack at the end of the fabricated video.
back story
The attack on Dubai stems from Operation Epic Fury, a joint U.S.-Israel offensive launched on February 28 that attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, military infrastructure and leadership, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Iran retaliated by firing hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf states that host U.S. military facilities.
Dubai was targeted because of the presence of U.S.-related facilities such as Jebel Ali Port and Al Minhad Air Base.
The fake video appears to have been deliberately created to exploit the ongoing conflict and spread panic and misinformation about the actual damage in Dubai and Iran. The Dubai Media Office warned the public against distributing old or misleading videos and called on them to rely only on official and up-to-date information.
As of this writing, the fake video posted by a FB user has garnered 2,000 responses. Number of comments: 215; and 679 shares.
