A video went viral this week, allegedly showing the footage of a surveillance camera filming the entrance to the notorious Evin prison in Tehran being destroyed by an explosion. According to Israel, it had fired on the prison; Iran's judiciary later confirmed the attack.

The prison is known for reports of human rights violations against political prisoners of the Iranian regime.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar shared the black-and-white video (archived here) on his X account, writing: "We warned Iran time and again: stop targeting civilians! They continued, including this morning. Our response: Viva la libertad, carajo!"

Numerous international media outlets featured or referenced the 6-second video to report on the attack. These included The New York Times, BBC and the German channel ARD. They have since deleted the footage and added disclaimers to their publications.

The video appears to be fake, most probably generated with artificial intelligence with the help of an old image of the prison gate. DW Fact Check examined the puzzle pieces.

Old image used as a template?

A photo of the prison entrance, which is identical down to the smallest details, was used in a Persian-language article by Voice of America from May 2023. It shows a larger section of the image and was presumably taken from this post on X, from January 2023.

Looking at the video circulating now and the 2023 image, it's possible to see many similarities which are just too exact for pictures of the same location that have been taken at least two years apart: Compare the missing tiles on the left side of the entrance, or the bare shrubs in the right lower corner of the marked in both images. The shrubs are also an indication that the photo cannot be recent, but was instead taken in winter, as there are no leaves at all.

Other pictures of Evin prison on the internet, which were actually taken in summer, show the bushes and shrubs covered in dense foliage. One example, presumably from 2021, can be found here.

Also, images of the damage actually caused at the prison in recent days, shared by Iranian news agencies, show trees and bushes covered in leaves, and not bare, as in the black-and-white video sequence.

Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in digital forensics, also pointed out the inconsistencies in the video shared by Saar in a post on LinkedIn on Tuesday.

He wrote: "Unfortunately, the video is heavily compressed, making forensic analysis challenging. […] It seems more likely that an AI-powered image-to-video generator was used with this image as the source.

AI-generated content becoming dangerously realistic

The poor video quality seems plausible by faking a surveillance camera recording, and complicates reverse image searches, as does the change in color footage to black and white.

"If this video is, in fact, fake, then it adds to a growing and disturbing trend of fake content circulating online as major world events unfold, making our understanding of what is happening and how to respond shaky, at best," said Farid.

Various fact checks, for example by Libération, VRT and ABC News Australia, have already come to the same conclusion: the video is not authentic. However, many users online and media outlets fell for it because there really was an attack on the prison. 

According to Iranian media, the attack not only struck the prison’s main entrance but also damaged a prosecutor's office and two courts within Evin, cited in media reports. Further confusion was caused because the viral video matches real footage of the entrance gate.

Farid told DW in a previous interview: "The problem with the fake content is that it's not just that people are creating fake content. It's that they are muddying the waters and suddenly everything is suspect."

With the improvement of AI-generating programs and the sheer amount of content shared online, this "muddying of waters" is making it more and more difficult to distinguish between what is real and fake.

This article is part of a cooperation with the fact check teams of the public broadcasters ARD-Faktenfinder, BR24 #Faktenfuchs and DW Faktencheck.

Edited by: Rayna Breuer