{"id":309627,"date":"2026-03-02T16:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/309627\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:47:10","slug":"bbc-verify-middle-east-conflict-sees-ai-fakes-and-disinformation-spread-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/309627\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Verify: Middle East conflict sees AI fakes and disinformation spread online"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Satellite picture said to show damage to US Navy base is AI fakepublished at 11:55 GMT<\/p>\n<p>11:55 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-5adjh7-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/24d2d5d4-d458-4196-aaee-113790d4fafc.png.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Thomas Copeland<br \/>BBC Verify Live journalist<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An image claiming to show damage to a US naval base in Qatar as seen from space is an AI fake, based on an old satellite image from a different place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The image, posted on X by Iran\u2019s state-aligned Tehran Times and shared widely online over the weekend, claims it shows destroyed US radar equipment in Qatar. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The false Tehran Times post claiming to show before and after satellite imagery of an attack on a US base in Qatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3321dc06-0f6d-40aa-a9fc-d352a1c6d715.png.webp.webp\"  width=\"596\" height=\"800\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The fake picture of damage appears to be based on real satellite imagery of a US base in Bahrain from February 2025, which is publicly available on Google Maps and Google Earth. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The before and after image was generated or edited with Google AI, according to Google\u2019s SynthID watermark detector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">We can also see discrepancies in the roof of the building at the bottom of the so-called \u201cafter\u201d picture compared with the original satellite image. We can also see three vehicles parked in the exact same spaces in both the genuine satellite imagery and the AI picture &#8211; despite the pictures allegedly having been taken a year apart.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"BBC Verify has annotated the original satellite image (left) and the fake version (right) showing the three parked vehicles. The roof of the building at the bottom of the image appears to have been changed in the AI version\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f677a166-0e59-4068-a7d5-f9cb4df89128.png.webp.webp\"  width=\"800\" height=\"670\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">We have verified multiple videos showing strikes on the US Navy\u2019s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain on Saturday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A senior Bahraini official told BBC News the base was struck on Saturday evening by an Iranian drone that caused a major fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The drone impacted right next to the UK naval facility that adjoins the US area but there were no casualties as the area had been evacuated, the official added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Satellite picture said to show damage to US Navy base is AI fakepublished at 11:55 GMT 11:55 GMT&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-309627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}