On 22nd February, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh quoted a video claiming that the United States has banned American companies from hiring Indian customer care services representatives. In the video, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, was seen using “derogatory” language against the people of India. Singh later deleted the post as the video he quoted was an Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated satire.
In his now-deleted post, Digvijaya Singh wrote, “Hon Shri Narendra Modi ji, our Prime Minister, just see what your dear friend Donald Trump thinks of India and Indians. Would you please react? If you can’t, shouldn’t your Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr S Jaishankar, protest what POTUS calls India ‘the most poisonous country in the world!'”.
Singh also tagged Congress, Rahul Gandhi, Supriya Shrinate and Pawan Khera in the post. The video, which was shared by an X user, Nasreem Ebrahim, was a fake satire video created using AI and not a real news report by Sobering Satire. While Digvijaya Singh has deleted the post, Ebrahim’s post was still there by the time this report was published.
Disrespectful Comments By Trump For Indians
— Nasreen Ebrahim (@EbrahimNasreen) February 21, 2025
This is what modi has projected himself and Indians pic.twitter.com/mKVcttrzVU
As clearly seen in the video, the channel name written on the bottom left is “Faux News” and in the centre of the strip, it reads “Sobering Satire”. For those who are unaware, Sobering Satire is a YouTube channel that posts fake or satirical news reports. It is similar to Fauxy News, which is a satirical news channel from India.
When OpIndia checked the actual video posted by Sobering Satire, its caption read, “Trump impression & Performance by Clive. AI did NOT Write, Speak or Perform this video. It only masked Clive’s face/performance.” The voice behind the video is of an artist named Michael Clive, who has worked as a voice-over artist for over 35 years. He has provided his services for shows including The Simpsons and many others.
Reacting to the post, X user Manish Rajora wrote, “This is the level of intelligence of principal opposition Congress’s main leaders, no surprise why they are still in opposition. India deserves better opposition!”
X user Ankur Singh wrote, “Congress has now started using Fake Videos made by AI to defame India. Just because this India doesn’t vote for Rahul Gandhi? Shame!”
Another X user Dr Amit Sarwal wrote, “Digi sharing fake video … not surprised though by his iq.”
According to The Daily Guardian, the video was created using a video from a press conference dated 10th January 2025. Though Digvijaya Singh deleted the post, he did not post any explanation or an apology for using a fake video to defame India.
