What was claimed
A video shows a man throwing a bucket of water over MP Zarah Sultana as she is speaking next to a Palestinian flag.
Our verdict
This video isn’t real and is likely an AI deepfake made using an old image of Ms Sultana.
Video of man throwing water over Zarah Sultana MP isn’t real
A video that appears to show a shirtless man wearing Union Jack shorts throwing a bucket of water over the MP Zarah Sultana while she is speaking next to a Palestinian flag has been shared widely online.
But the video isn’t real and was likely made using artificial intelligence (AI).
A clue that indicates the video was almost certainly generated with AI is that Ms Sultana’s face appears to blur and glitch as the water covers her. Her face also looks slightly different after this point, taking on a more unnatural gloss or sheen, and the right hand of the man standing behind Ms Sultana becomes unusually large and distorted.
As we’ve explained before, if a video has been made with AI, the technology may slip up when the person turns to the side or partially covers their face, such as when it is covered by water in this video.
Dr Siwei Lyu, an expert in digital media forensics at University at Buffalo, State University of New York, also told Full Fact that the clip “shows strong indicators of image-to-video generation” citing the inconsistent shape of the bucket, the distortion of the flag pattern on the shorts as the man moves, abrupt changes in the appearance of hair and clothing and warped text, all of which “suggest AI synthesis rather than real footage”.
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Where did the video come from?
Reverse image searches for stills from the video do not produce an official source for the footage, or any credible media reports of it.
The first example we could find was shared on 4 July by an account that shares lots of similar looking AI-generated videos, including other examples of politicians being ambushed by a similar looking shirtless man.
However, we matched the video with an image Ms Sultana posted on X (formerly Twitter) in May 2021. Deepfakes can be created using a single picture.
Although some claims we check seem very obviously false, it’s not always clear to everyone that this is the case. We’ve written a blog explaining why we do this, which you can read here.
We have previously debunked a number of other likely AI generated videos and audio of politicians and prominent figures, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, London’s Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, and Pope Leo XIV.
As AI technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, it is harder to differentiate between real and generated content online. Our recent blog delved into what clues to look out for if you suspect something may have been created with AI.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as altered because this video isn’t real and was almost certainly made using artificial intelligence.