A purported video (here, here, here, here, here, and here) showing a Muslim man saying, “English? We don’t need English. This is the city of migrants — migrants from the Middle East. We will make Arabic the official language of New York.” is going viral on social media platforms, claiming that Muslim migrants in New York protested, demanding that Arabic be made the city’s official language after Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral elections. Through this article, let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: The video shows Muslim migrants in New York protesting and demanding that Arabic be made the city’s official language, following Zohran Mamdani’s election.
Fact: This viral video is fake and AI-generated. Multiple AI detection tools have confirmed that it is artificially created. There are no credible reports of any such protest taking place in New York City demanding that Arabic be made the city’s official language following Zohran Mamdani’s election as the city’s mayor. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon closer examination, the viral video appears unrealistic and contains several inconsistencies. For instance, the man wearing a hoodie and standing behind the speaker appears to have no head, and there are visible distortions in the Palestinian flag, including parts of the flag overlapping with a person’s face. Such anomalies are commonly found in AI-generated or deepfake videos (here and here), suggesting that this video was likely created using artificial intelligence.
To further verify whether the viral video was AI-generated, we analysed it using AI content detection tools such as Hive, Resemble AI, and Hiya. Hive indicated a 99.9% likelihood that the video was AI-generated, while both AI audio detection tools — Hiya AI and Resemble AI — also identified several segments of the video’s audio as artificially produced. Based on this evidence, it is clear that the viral video is AI-generated and does not depict a real incident.
We then conducted a relevant keyword search to determine whether Muslims in New York had protested, demanding that Arabic be made the city’s official language following Zohran Mamdani’s election. However, this search did not yield any credible reports supporting the viral claim. If such a protest had indeed taken place in New York, it would undoubtedly have been reported by both US and international media outlets.
Additionally, we have reached out to the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to verify whether any such incident occurred in New York following Zohran Mamdani’s election as the city’s mayor. This article will be updated once a response is received.
To sum it up, an AI-generated video is shared as showing Muslim migrants in New York demanding Arabic as NYC’s Official language.
