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AII-1001-00537
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Romanian Ministry of Interior warns of viral AI-generated fake video

Romanian authorities warned of a viral AI-generated video falsely depicting a conflict between a priest and a gendarme in an Orthodox church. The Ministry of Interior confirmed the incident never occurred and urged the public not to share the fabricated material.

23 January 2026 ยท Ministerul Afacerilor Interne ยท Misinformation and synthetic media
23 January 2026
AII-1001-00537
Quick facts
Category
Misinformation and synthetic media
Country
Romania
Date
23 January 2026
Drafted by
Raidu Incident Detection

What happened

A video generated with artificial intelligence depicting a conflict between a priest and a gendarme (member of Jandarmeria Romรขnฤƒ) inside an Orthodox church circulated widely online.

In the video, a priest is heard saying: 'Not here, not in the Orthodox Church! I don't know who sent you, but here we have love for one another and all for the Lord!' The video falsely suggested a confrontation between the priest and the gendarme.

The Romanian Ministry of Interior (MAI) issued a public warning stating that the incident depicted in the video did not occur in reality and that the material was a manipulated or AI-generated fabrication designed to mislead the public.

Reported impact

The Ministry of Interior highlighted the massive distribution of the fake video in the online space and urged the public not to share the material.

Governance controls

The Ministry of Interior responded by issuing a public warning clarifying that the images do not depict a real event and do not correspond to any intervention carried out by its structures, and directed the public to verify information only from official sources.

Classification

Category
Misinformation and synthetic media
Industry
Media, social platforms and marketing
Country
Romania
Harm status
Potential harm
Intent
Unknown
Timing
Unknown
Harm types
Public interest
Harmed
General public
Failure modes
Deepfake video
Consequences
None recorded
AI systems
Unknown AI video generation system

Sources and evidence

Sources not yet published

This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.

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