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A video of an aircraft flying and being escorted by several jets is going viral on the internet with a claim that it shows United States President Joe Biden returning to his country after attending the recently conducted G20 summit.
What have users said?: Those sharing the video have uploaded it with a caption saying, "President Joe Biden returning to USA after attending d G-20 summit in New Delhi....What a Security! (sic)."
(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)
What is the truth?: The video could be traced back to at least January 2023, which predates the G20 summit held in New Delhi.
The post on TikTok carried hashtags such as #dcs and #dcsworld, indicating that the video was created using Digital Combat Simulator (DCS).
How did we find out?: On performing a Google Lens search, we came across the same video uploaded on an Instagram account named 'loveaviations'.
The video was uploaded with a caption that said, "Real or Fake."
It was uploaded on 5 September.
(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)
We noticed that several users in the comments pointed out that the video is fake and has been created using DCS game simulation.
Several users mentioned the word 'DCS' in the comments section.
(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)
We then extracted the keyframes of the video using InVID WeVerify, a video verification tool, and performed a reverse image search on them.
This led us to the same video uploaded on TikTok. As the platform is banned in India, we used a VPN tool to access the video.
It carried uploaded by a user named 'iceman_fox1' and carried hashtags such as #dcs, #dcsworld, and #virtualreality in the description.
The video was uploaded on 25 January.
(Source: TikTok/Screenshot)
Similar videos are available on YouTube: Several people on the platform use DCS to create combat simulation. For example - If we look at the video below, it will become clear that the flight looks similar to the one seen in the viral video.
Additionally, the quality and texture of the background also gives away the fact that the video has been created.
Conclusion: While we could not independently verify the source or context of the video, it is clear that it is old and does not show US President returning after attending G20 summit.
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