It was a video that was broadcast on June 23 by many media, and among them the most prestigious, around the world. In France, France 2 and BFMTV, among others, broadcast the sequence. She was also put forward by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Israeli, Gideon Sa’ar, on his X account, with this comment: “We have warned Iran repeatedly: stop targeting civilians ! They continued, including this morning. Our response : Long live freedom, my dear! “
It must be said that the images are symbolic, showing a targeted Israeli shot making the doors of Evin prison, in Tehran, shattered, one of the sinisterly emblematic places of the oppression of the mullahs regime.
On the video, which appeared a little after 11 a.m. on June 23, on social networks, you can see the explosion of an imposing door, presented as one of the entrances to the prison. The sequence seems to be taken from a video surveillance device, as evidenced by the inscription “Camera 07” in the top left of the screen.
It is indeed, on these images, the prison of Evin, and more precisely of its southern door, as we can see on this geolocation. In addition, the penitentiary establishment was affected by explosions on June 23, according to the Iranian judicial agency Miza News Agency.
But this video, which has shot enormously on social networks, and therefore served to illustrate many television news around the world, is very likely to be false.
After having “authenticated” it themselves, our colleagues from BBC Verifiy thus issued serious doubts on Monday evening. And for good reason: as raised on X Tal Hagin, an Israeli Factchecker, this video could have been generated by AI, with a real photo of the prison, but taken several years ago.
The angle of shooting in the video of the explosion (and the perspective of the building in relation to the other elements), as well as the stripped vegetation which appears there-of winter appearance while we are in June-resemble, indeed, very strongly to what can be seen in this photo (below), which was used to illustrate articles on Iranian sites in 2024 or 2023. And where it was already presented as an archive image.
By superimposing the two images, as we did in the GIF below, we can also realize that the details, especially concerning the vegetation, are exactly the same (from the inclination of the branches to the cutting of the foliage of the bushes), even if the image resulting from the video seems to have been very slightly distorted in relation to the archive image.
Rightly, Tal Hagin also points out that the vegetation, on the video, seems insensitive to the explosion, which nevertheless seems to destroy the front door.
The fact remains that this southern door of the prison has been affected by an explosion, as we can see on this video of Iranian Iribian Radio-Television. Except that on these images, the whole body of building surrounds this door which is on the ground, and not only the door itself as in the viral video.
Ditto for the north door, as we can see in this other video, and that CheckNews was able to geolocate.
The semi-official news agency Fars News Agency also broadcast, for its part, a video of a building presented as the prison hospital, strongly damaged, but which we have failed to geolocate.
If it was proven that the image was generated by AI, its recovery, on a planetary scale and by among the most serious media, would make this episode one of the largest media hiccups linked to artificial intelligence. And would illustrate – if necessary – the dangers posed by AI’s progress in terms of disinformation. Even if, in this case, this probably manipulated image illustrates a very real fact.
It would also remain to determine the objective and identity of the potent for the author. As CheckNews could be seen, the dissemination of these images frequently illustrates the assertion that the Israeli strike, targeted on the door alone, caused no other damage or victim, and that it would be essentially symbolic. What the Iranian authorities deny, evoking the dead. This strike was also largely condemned by international institutions and many countries, including France.
However, it is impossible, for the time being, to determine the origin of the images. CheckNewsat this stage, could not identify their first occurrence on social networks. Nor a fortiori to determine the identity of their author.
