Trump’s India Tariff, Deepfakes & YouTube’s Algorithm

September 27, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

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United States President Donald Trump’s 50 percent tariff might be bleeding Indian businesses but for content creators the eye-watering tariffs have presented an opportunity to earn ad dollars on YouTube. Read on!

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52-year old Assamese singer Zubeen Garg, who was set to perform at the North East Festival on 20th and 21st this month in Singapore, died on September 19 after experiencing breathing problems while swimming. 

Next, social media was rife with misinformation around the incident. 

Claim 1: Video shows Garg losing consciousness underwater.

Fact: BOOM found that the Instagram handle which posted the viral video also uploaded the same clip on YouTube under the username @RajaFaizaanvlog. On YouTube, the video carries a disclaimer tag stating that it is AI-generated and altered media, unlike the Instagram post, where no such disclosure was made.

Also, BOOM ran the viral video through the deepfake detection tool DeepFake-O-Meter, developed by the UB Media Forensics Lab. Two separate analyses by this tool gave the video a 100% fake probability, confirming that it is AI-generated. 

Claim 2: A viral video shows one of the seven people on an orange rescue boat doing CPR on an unresponsive person lying down while others help. A man can be heard saying, "Zubeen! Zubeen! Are you okay? Someone call the ambulance. Stay with us." A Facebook user posted the video with the caption, "Zubeen garg singapore Viral Video(sic)."

Fact: A closer observation revealed several discrepancies in the video. For instance, the swimming goggles can be seen disappearing and reappearing on the characters' faces in successive scenes. We also ran reverse image searches on the keyframes of the viral video but did not find any credible reports that matches the viral visuals.

AI Detection tools such as Hive Moderation and Was It AI also indicated the presence of artificial intelligence in the viral video.

DECODE

Trump’s India Tariff Spells Payday For YouTube’s AI, Deepfake Creators

Deepfake opportunists: Content creators on the Alphabet-owned platform are cranking out realistic video and audio clips of world leaders and international public figures using AI (artificial intelligence) and deepfake technology, opining on the tariff war. 

Roster of deepfaked personalities: The deepfaked subjects range from former United States President Barack Obama, tech billionaire Elon Musk, British broadcaster Piers Morgan, late-night show host Jon Stewart, motivational influencer Mel Robbins to media commentator Jordan Peterson among others.

What’s driving this trend?: Decode’s Karen Rebelo & Anmol Alphonso found ads playing before many AI voice-clone-based videos, indicating that this content is being monetised. A few of the YouTube channels also featured pro-Islam content, suggesting that ad money rather than religious or political ideology might be driving this trend.

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While election-based synthetic media is increasing, it is alongside increasing use in AI slop. AI slop is often inflammatory and sensationalist to drive monetisation, with the propaganda or disinformation purposes potentially secondary.

Sam Gregory, a human rights activist and executive director at Witness

Decode impact: YouTube took down 20 channels after Decode brought it to their notice.

PR Companies Have Been Coaxing Influencers To Promote Govt’s Ethanol Policy

Claim: When Union minister Nitin Gadkari dismissed concerns around 20% ethanol-blended petrol (E20) earlier this month, he said the critics were a part of a “paid campaign” run by “vested interests”, even as many pointed to genuine issues around potential damage to vehicles, trade-offs with food production, and the fast-tracked rollout of the policy. 

Counter-claim: Gadkari’s claim, however, was quickly questioned online. Social media users began highlighting data, conflicts of interest, and the PR machinery behind the push for E20. One creator, Mukesh Mohan, with over 52K followers on X and over 400K on Instagram, posted a video that backed up these questions with proof. 

Where’s the proof?: Decode’s Hera Rizwan spoke to content creators who have received emails and calls from public relation agencies asking them for paid promotion of the government’s ethanol policy. 

Leaderless and Logged In: Inside Nepal’s Discord Parliament

As Nepal’s Gen Z clashed with riot police and torched government buildings, Vijay Rai—an architect from Damak—didn’t march to Kathmandu to join the movement. He logged into a server called Youth Against Corruption on the popular gaming voice conference tool Discord, where an unusual experiment in political decision-making unfolded. 

Thousands of young Nepali dissidents joined the server, and raised their digital hands, queuing up to debate who should lead the country. 

Kiran Garimella, assistant professor at Rutgers School of Information and Communication, believes that while the narrative of a leader being chosen via Discord is certainly compelling, it is a “dangerous oversimplification” of what really transpired.

“The idea that a decision as monumental as selecting an interim prime minister was genuinely made by a popular vote on a chat app used by probably less than 5% of the population is really worrying,” Kiran told Decode’s Archis Chowdhury.

'FAKE NEWS’ YOU ALMOST FELL FOR

🔍  A digitally altered video was shared on social media falsely claiming Home Minister Amit Shah blamed National Security Advisor (NSA) chief Ajit Doval and demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation over Operation Sindoor, allegedly admitting to “losses” to Pakistan during the conflict. Read 🔗 Anmol Alphonso’s ↗️ fact-check.

🔍  A video of former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief Amarjit Singh Dulat losing his temper during an interview was shared with the false claim that it shows him slapping a reporter from Hindi news outlet AajTak during a podcast. 🔗 Srijit Das ↗️  tells you the truth.

🔍 Does this video show visuals from the cloud burst that hit Kolkata on September 23? Find out in 🔗 Srijanee Chakraborty’s ↗️ fact-check.

🅱️ RECOMMENDS

This week's recommendation is: ‘Digital brains’ that ‘think’ and ‘feel’: why do we personify AI models, and are these metaphors actually helpful?

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Verified By Boom is written by Divya Chandra, edited by Adrija Bose and designed by H Shiva Roy Chowdhury.

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