Samagi Jana Balawegaya AI image incident — Sep 2026

Following a September 24, 2026, protest by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) against the 22nd Constitutional Amendment Bill, social media users circulated images purported to be drone footage of the rally. These images were used to both inflate and diminish the perceived turnout of the event, but investigations confirmed they were entirely synthetic.

What happened

The incident involved the dissemination of two distinct AI-generated images presented as aerial drone shots of the protest held at Polduwa Junction in Battaramulla. The images were debunked through several inconsistencies and official denials. First, the area surrounding the Sri Lankan Parliament is a designated high-security zone where drone flights are prohibited, making genuine aerial footage impossible to obtain. Furthermore, neither mainstream media outlets nor the SJB’s official channels published any drone photography of the event.

Visual analysis revealed clear signs of AI manipulation. One image featured the Lotus Tower, which is located over nine kilometers away, appearing prominently in the background. Additionally, the weather conditions in the fake images were sunny, contradicting the rainy conditions documented by journalists on the ground, who captured protesters using umbrellas. The images also contained technical anomalies, such as unnatural crowd formations and blurred road segments. An AI content detection tool confirmed the images were machine-generated. The SJB Media Division and the Opposition Leader’s office issued statements confirming the images were fake and urged the public to refrain from sharing them, noting that the party had never produced or utilized such material.