US President Donald Trump threatened to destroy critical infrastructure in Iran ahead of the ceasefire announced on April 7, but a video shared online purporting to show Iranians gathering to protect the Islamic Republic’s power plant was actually generated by AI. Iranian state media reported people forming a human chain around the power plant, but the creator of the video previously told AFP that the footage was created using AI tools when false posts first circulated in January claiming to show Iranians protesting against the regime.
”A breathtaking sight: Iranians took to the streets and gathered in front of the power plant. It has one goal: to protect the country’s energy infrastructure and build resistance against potential U.S. and Israeli attacks,” it says in Bengali. Facebook post on April 8, 2026.
A 46-second video shows a large crowd marching through the city holding cellphone flashlights.
The video is overlaid with Bengali text that says: “Wherever there is a threat of attack, waves of Iranians will rush.”
Screenshot of a false post taken on April 13, 2026. Red X and AI watermark added by AFP
The video was posted on Facebook along with similar claims after Iranian state media reported that people were forming a human chain “to support the power plant” in the southern city of Bushehr, home to the country’s nuclear power plant, after President Trump threatened to destroy the country’s energy facilities (archive link).
President Trump has agreed to halt bombing Iran for two weeks if it reopens the Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic Republic has effectively blocked for weeks in retaliation for the Feb. 28 joint U.S.-Israeli attack that sparked a regional war. (Archived link).
However, peace talks to end the war failed on April 12, with US Vice President J.D. Vance stating that after 21 hours of negotiations, Tehran refused to accept Washington’s terms (archive link).
President Trump then ordered the United States to blockade the vital Strait of Hormuz and reiterated earlier threats to destroy Iranian power plants and other civilian infrastructure unless a permanent deal is reached.
However, the videos in circulation are actually synthetic content.
AFP previously debunked the same video in January when it was shared online as genuine footage of anti-government protests against the Iranian regime, sparked by widespread economic and political discontent (archive links here and here).
A closer inspection of the videos in circulation revealed visual errors that indicate AI-generated content.
Javier Huertas Tato, a professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and a member of the university’s natural language processing and deep learning group, pointed out the discrepancy in a January 12 email (archive link).
For example, shadows and hands appear naturally, or light reflected off a window is poorly rendered.
Analysis of video screenshots using InVID-WeVerify, a tool co-developed by AFP, revealed that the video AI generated.
Screenshot of AI tool detection results with AI labels added by AFP
Some versions of the video in circulation included a watermark from Instagram user @elnaz555. The artist is an artist named Elnaz Mansouri who uses AI in his work (archived links here and here).
Mansouri told AFP on January 13 that he used AI to create the video.
She also noted that the video was created using artificial intelligence on Instagram and X, explaining that it was meant to “reflect” the reality after the digital blackout in Iran (archive links here and here).
Screenshot of Mansoori’s original Instagram post, taken on April 14, 2026, with AI labels added by AFP
AFP news agency debunked other misinformation stemming from Middle East wars.
