Recently, a video circulated on social media shows a rat suddenly running across the front of a news desk during a live broadcast, prompting the news anchor to stand up in fear. Posts sharing this video claimed, “A rat suddenly ran into Al Jazeera’s broadcast studio!”
In other words, the claim suggests that the viral video is a real recording from the Qatar-based news outlet Al Jazeera’s broadcast studio showing a rat running across the desk.
You can see Facebook posts making this claim here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive).
Fact-check
Rumor Scanner’s investigation found that the video of a rat running across the desk in Al Jazeera’s news studio is not real. Instead, it was created using artificial intelligence (AI) technology and falsely shared as genuine footage.
Upon examining the viral video, several inconsistencies can be observed — for instance, after the anchor jumps up in fear, she is seen sitting back down on the opposite side of the moving chair. Such inconsistencies are typically found in videos generated using AI technology.
Furthermore, a post shared on October 10 by Saad Abedine, a producer and news editor at Al Jazeera, on his X account addresses this viral video. In the post, he clarified that the chair, set, and anchor shown in the clip have never been part of Al Jazeera. He also mentioned that he has worked in the studio for 11 years and has never seen any rats there.
Subsequently, when the video was analyzed using AI and deepfake detection platforms like DeepFake-O-Meter and Hive Moderation, it showed a high likelihood of being fake.
Therefore, an AI-generated video was circulated with the claim that it shows a real rat running across the desk in Al Jazeera’s news broadcast studio; which is false.
Sources
- Saad Abedine – X Post
- Hive Moderation
- DeepFake-O-Meter
