After PTI’s allegations of severe torture on Shahbaz Gill in police custody, the federal government today released a video, which shows Shahbaz Gul in a state of calm and good health and with no apparent signs of torture. After the release of this video, various circles have raised questions over the authenticity of the video on social media.
Use of deepfake technology
Many journalists, social media activists and PTI supporters on the popular social networking website Twitter are expressing doubts whether the video is actually of Shahbaz Gill or faked with the help of deepfake technology and another person’s image is presented as Shahbaz Gul through manipulation.
Deepfake has been trending on Twitter since the video was released, with over 5,000 tweets by people of various backgrounds.
Before go again, let us remind you that deepfake is a technology, in which any person can be imitated and moved, even the appearance can be changed.
So, in this trend, there are questions that whether the person who is seen in the videos and pictures shared today are really Shahbaz Gill? Or, with the help of this technology, someone else’s pictures have been presented as Shahbaz Gill
In a video shared by the government, a man in the form of Dr. Shehbaz Gill is seen sitting, standing and walking in a hospital room in perfect condition without an oxygen mask. It can be seen in the videos that the person is also talking to the Islamabad police officer while reviewing a file.
Among others, some well-known journalists have also participated in this trend on Twitter and linked the images to make the video released by the government suspicious.
However, journalists and social media users, refusing to accept this person as Shehbaz Gul, have started giving arguments and terming it as a ploy of the PML-N.
Commenting on this matter, senior journalist and analyst Anwar Lodhi addressed the Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Maryam Aurangzeb and said that Shahbaz Gill became so healthy while in police custody that his eye glasses came off and his hair grew thick.
مریم اورنگزیب صاحبہ کیا شہباز گل آپکی تحویل میں رہ کر اتنے صحت مند ہو گئے ہیں کہ ویڈیو میں انکی نظر کی عینک ہی اتر گئی ہے؟ ????
— Anwar Lodhi (@AnwarLodhi) August 20, 2022
Journalist Tariq Mateen while answering the question of Ansar Abbasi said that you should trust your eyes, from where is this person seeing Shahbaz Gill?
اپنی آنکھوں پر ! یہ آپ کو کہاں سے شہباز گل نظر آ رہا ہے۔ مجھے تو کوءی اور لگا تو میں نے بتا دیا ۔ مگر خدا کا خوف کریں یہ گل ہے تو پھر اس ویڈیو کو پلے کرنے والی سری دیوی ہیں https://t.co/uWwO6yAfrk
— Tariq Mateen (@tariqmateen) August 20, 2022
A user named Fayaz Shah said that Shahbaz Gill is more than 6 feet tall and has a heavy body. Shehbaz Gill’s alleged video looks not more than 5 feet 7 inches tall, has a light body and most importantly, he has thick hair on his head.
شہباز گِل کا قد 6 فٹ سے زیادہ اور جسم بھاری ہے۔ شہباز گِل کی مبینہ وڈیو والے بندے کی ہائیٹ 5 فٹ 7 انچ سے زیادہ نہیں لگ رہی، جسم بھی ہلکا ہے اور سب سے اہم بات کہ اِس کے سر پر گھنے بال ہیں۔
لگتا ہے یہ سستی فلم "ایکسکیوزمی آپ بھی" کے ایکٹر و ڈائریکٹر وسیم حسن شیخ سے بنوائی گئی ہے
— Fayyaz Shah (@RebelByThought) August 20, 2022
Another user said that the person who proves that this picture is of Shahbaz Gill is blind both in eyes and heart.
These questions seems to cast doubt on the fact that the video released by the government is really of Shehbaz Gill, which the government has released with full confidence.
کمال ہے یہ ثابت کرنے والا کہ یہ تصویر شہباز گل کی ہے آنکھوں اور دل دونوں سے اندھا ہے اور ان بدبختوں پہ لعنت جنہوں نے شہباز گل کی تصویر مان لی pic.twitter.com/70J8HDITjl
— Naveed DaulatzaiPTI (@Ndaulatzai1) August 20, 2022
Regardless of this discussion on Twitter, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf has not issued any official statement on the video issue.
