Deepfake Videos of Celebrities 'Promoting' Online Games Go Viral

The videos of Tendulkar and Kohli endorsing online games are fake and are being shared to mislead viewers.

Rujuta Thete
WebQoof
Updated:
<div class="paragraphs"><p>Fact-Check | Both the videos are deepfakes are being shared with a false claim.</p></div>
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Fact-Check | Both the videos are deepfakes are being shared with a false claim.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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A video showing a TV anchor followed by former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar talking about an online game is going viral on social media as a real advertisement.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Another video which shows former Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli promoting an online gaming app named 'Aviator' is being circulated on social media platforms.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

A similar video has gone viral claiming that Kohli has announced the launch of his new casino. Kohli could be seen wearing the same attire as seen in the viral video above.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Recently, a different video of Kohli 'promoting' an online application went viral on Facebook with the post generating over a million views.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Another deepfake video of Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Foundation Director Anant Ambani talking about 'Aviator' is also going viral as real.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/screenshot)

What's the truth?: All the videos are deepfakes as the two public figures have not endorsed any such online game.

  • Tendulkar clarified on his official X (formerly Twitter) account that a fake video of him 'promoting' an online game is going viral.

  • The original video of Kohli showed him discussing about his personal life and cricket.

Tendulkar's Video

We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video, which led us to an X post by News18 India, which showed the same video of the anchor.

  • In the original video, the anchor talks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Kerala.

  • We also found the original video of Tendulkar shared on YouTube by News18 on 23 April 2023.

  • Tendulkar is seen talking about his cricket journey and him turning 50.

  • It does not show him talking about the online game ‘Skyward Aviator’ as claimed.

  • Tendulkar took to his official X account to clarify that a deepfake video of him is going viral online.

  • He shared another deepfake video related to the same game and stated that this video was fake.

  • Team WebQoof has debunked this claim in the past which can be read here.

Kohli's Video

Team WebQoof performed a keyword search on YouTube and found a video of Kohli's interview, which showed him wearing the same attire as seen in the viral video.

  • The video dated back to 22 December 2023 and showed Kohli discussing about his personal life and about cricketer.

  • It was uploaded on a verified YouTube channel named 'Graham Bensinger'.

Comparing the visuals: We compared a keyframe from the viral video to visuals from YouTube video and found that the latter has been used to generate this deepfake of Kohli.

A comparison clearly highlights the similarities.

(Source: YouTube/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)

Conclusion: A set of deepfake videos of Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli is going viral on social media platforms.

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Published: 07 Feb 2024,11:58 AM IST

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