As protests pushing for the election commissioner's resignation swept India, social media users shared erroneous responses from an AI chatbot in which it falsely claimed a photo of security forces gripping a man's neck is years-old, taken in West Bengal in 2020. The New York Times told AFP it was taken in Delhi in October during a recent protest, while the man in the photo confirmed he was detained the same day after taking part in demonstrations.
An image of a police officer manhandling a protester was shared by Saurav Das, a co-convenor of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), on X on October 11, 2026, which he captioned, "Government of India strangling its citizens".
But an X user responded to the post by accusing Das of "spreading fake news", sharing a screenshot of a conversation with Elon Musk's Grok chatbot in which the AI assistant claims the photo was taken in West Bengal in October 2020.
"Look at the photo below -- he is spreading lies. @DelhiPolice, please deal with him; he is spreading fake news," the X user said on October 12.
X also falsely labelled Das's post with a community note based on Grok's response.
Similar posts tagged the Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah, accusing Das of sharing misleading content and attempting to inflame communal tensions.
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