After Pakistani army chief General Syed Asim Munir held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during an official visit to the Gulf kingdom in November 2024, a video was shared showing the army chief touching his host’s knee. However, the video was originally posted by a TikTok account that labeled it as AI-generated content. Excerpts from the meeting shared by Saudi state media also do not show any such interaction taking place.
The video was shared in an X-post in Urdu on November 7, 2024, accusing Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir of disrespecting Pakistani women yet “falling at the feet of others abroad”.
The accompanying clip, which has been viewed more than 370,000 times, appears to show the army chief reaching out to touch the knee of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Touching someone else’s knee is considered an expression of respect in Pakistan; government officials sometimes touch the knee of a political opponent or ally to ask for their support (archived link).
The Urdu word “bachalo (save me)” appears at the top left of the clip, while “Bilal Ai” appears at the top right.
The video was shared by an account that previously posted content in support of Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who fell out with the country’s influential military establishment shortly before his ouster in April 2022 (archived link).
The army looms large in Pakistan’s political landscapewith generals having ruled the country for almost half its history since India’s secession in 1947.
Screenshot of the fake X-post, captured on November 15, 2024
The same video was shared along with similar claims elsewhere on X here, here and here.
It circulated after the Saudi Crown Prince welcomed the Pakistani army chief to the Royal Palace during an official visit November 6.
According to the Pakistan Army Information Wing (ISPR)the two discussed regional peace, defense and security cooperation and strategies for improving relations (archived link).
But images of the meeting released by state media do not show the supposed interaction circulating on social media.
‘AI content’
A keyword search on Google for “Bilal Ai” – the text posted on the falsely shared video – led to the same clip being shared on a TikTok account of the same name (archived link).
The account bio lists both “AI Content” and “Satire.”
The video was shared to the account on November 7, with the disclaimer: “Creator tagged as AI generated.”
According to TikTok, “Creators self-apply this label to indicate that their content is entirely AI-generated or significantly edited” (archived link).
Below is one screenshot comparison between the video used in the fake post (left) and the same video labeled ‘AI generated’ on TikTok (right):
Screenshot comparison between the video used in the fake post (left) and the same video labeled ‘AI generated’ on TikTok (right)
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the AI-generated video led to a matching photo posted by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on X (archived link).
The same photo was also used in a Geo News article and attributed to ISPR (archived link).
The Geo News article also includes an embedded video showing footage of the meeting between the army chief and the Saudi Crown Prince, taken from a slightly different angle, but at no point in the short clip does Munir reach forward to touch the Saudi leader’s knee to touch. de facto leader.
AFP has previously debunked fake reports circulating in Pakistan using AI-generated content here and here.
