WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A video shows Bougainville's president punching Papua New Guinea's prime minister.
OUR VERDICT
False. The video was created using artificial intelligence technology.
AAP FactCheck - A fake video depicting a physical altercation between leaders of Papua New Guinea and the aspiring nation of Bougainville is spreading online.
The clip displays key signs of being created using artificial intelligence (AI).
It purports to show Bougainville region president Ishmael Toroama punching Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape as they sit behind a table.
The video is being shared widely on social media, with one Facebook post gaining almost 400,000 views.
Some people appear to think the clip is real, while others acknowledge it has been edited.
"Marape will curse the one who edited this video," one Facebook post reads.
Hashtags including #AIedited and #AITools2025 are included in the captions of some posts.
The clip appears to have been generated from a photo of Mr Toroama and Mr Marape taken at a press conference in May 2021, at which they signed a joint agreement transferring certain powers to the Bougainville region's government.
Local news stories about the meeting don't mention any confrontation between the pair, including by the PNG Bulletin, the Pacific Islands News Association and EMTV Online.
Signs that it was created using an AI generator include Mr Marape's chair changing shape, disappearing and reappearing (timestamp 2 seconds), and Mr Toroama rising unnaturally from the ground (0:04).
Mr Toroama issued a statement on Facebook confirming the video is digitally manipulated.
"This video is not only false and malicious - it is dangerous," he said.
"It threatens to undermine the ongoing spirit of dialogue, peace and cooperation that both our governments have worked tirelessly to build."
Mediation between PNG and Bougainville, a region of self-governed islands, is ongoing.
A decade-long conflict between the PNG military and Bougainville's armed groups ended in 1998 with a subsequent peace agreement establishing the Autonomous Bougainville Government.
In 2019, more than 97 per cent of Bougainvillean voters backed independence in a non-binding referendum, but the PNG government has not ratified the result.
Mr Toroama has called on PNG's National Information and Communications Technology Authority to find the source of the video.
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Kate Atkinson - AAP FactCheck
