Video of Muslim women calling for Brighton beach to be dog-free is AI

A Facebook video viewed more than 1.7 million times appears to show an interview with two Muslim women on Brighton beach saying the UK has “too many dogs”. But this video is fake and was made with artificial intelligence (AI).

In the footage, two women wearing niqabs (a head covering worn by some Muslim women that doesn’t cover the eyes) appear to be speaking to a microphone on what looks like Brighton beach.

They say that “the UK has too many dogs”, and that “people should avoid those beaches where Muslim people relax, they should understand dogs are not accepted in our religion so better take them to a dog park instead of the beach”.

It is captioned: “Breaking: Dogs declared haram on Brighton prom. Next week: seagulls get a fatwa for being too noisy. Can't make this up.” The post has more than 34,000 comments, many of which appear to believe the video is genuine.

But this video isn’t real—it’s an AI creation, most likely made to generate engagement online through a strategy known as ‘ragebait’, which involves posting content which is deliberately designed to anger and outrage.

We found both the visuals and the audio contained SynthID, an invisible watermark added to content created or edited with Google’s AI tools.

While the presence of a watermark can't tell us whether AI was used to completely generate something new or modify existing content, in this case there are other clues that point to it being created by AI.

While the pier in the background has some resemblance to Brighton’s, it doesn't match views of the real Brighton Palace Pier and is missing key rides such as the prominent helter skelter.

There are also other glitches in the background of the video, which is much lower quality and seems to show dogwalkers and their dogs disappearing at points, or those pets appearing to have more than four legs. There are also prominent glitches in the pebbles especially in the bottom left corner as one woman moves.

The audio also has signs it’s AI-generated, with one woman saying “uslim” instead of Muslim.

We found that the page sharing this clip has also posted many other seemingly AI-generated videos, often in interview format.

Before sharing viral content like this, it’s important to consider whether it comes from a trustworthy source, or if it’s been created to make you feel a certain way. Our toolkit contains tips on how to do this, as well as our guides on spotting AI-generated content.