Viral Video Of Monkeys Frightened By Diwali Firecrackers Is AI Slop

An AI-generated video appearing to show three monkeys startled by fireworks is being shared on social media as footage of a real incident during Diwali.

BOOM found the original video with an AI label; two AI-detection tools also flagged the footage as likely AI-generated.

The Claim:
The video is being shared on social media to show the distress caused by fireworks to animals during Diwali.

इनकी बेजुबान आँखें बहुत कुछ कहती हैं, पर हम अपनी आतिशबाजी के शोर में इनकी चीखें नहीं सुन पाते। जरा सोचिए, हमारे कुछ पलों का जश्न कैसे इनकी पूरी रात का डर बन जाता है? https://t.co/wQPxuePQZR

— Akhilesh Hindustani (@byakhileshyadav) November 9, 2026

Archive available here.

Right-wing X user Rishi Bagree shared the video as real footage but claimed that it was old and not linked to Diwali.

Archive available here.

What We Found:
1) Original Video with AI Label: A reverse image search traced the video to a Facebook post from the handle @Love.nature.48 dated November 1, 2026 with a label indicating it was created using AI.

2) Results from AI detection tools: The video shows several visual inconsistencies - at the 2-second mark, the monkeys appear to jump simultaneously, seemingly out of fear, in a synchronised and unnatural manner. We also ran the video through Undetectable AI and Hive Moderation's AI detection tools, which flagged it as AI-generated.

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3) SynthID watermark detected: We then ran the video through SynthID detector, which found embedded markers confirming that the video was made or edited using OpenAI.