The Blast Never Happened. Why Did Your Thumb Believe It?
In Bengaluru this week, a fake explosion lasted a few seconds on Instagram. A real arrest followed within hours. Here are the questions every student should be asking. What actually happened? Bengaluru police arrested a 25-year-old daily-wage pipe fitter from Bihar after he posted an AI-edited video showing a bomb blast at Vidhana Soudha, Karnataka's legislature. The clip opened with real footage of him outside the building, then added fake flames and a caption claiming he did it. An FIR was filed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. No blast occurred. Is this a one-off? No. Days earlier, a doctored "BBC" screenshot asked whether Indian Gen Z was too lazy to burn down India. It carried an AI watermark and a photo from French protests. BBC denied it. Thousands raged anyway. Why does an AI fake travel faster than the truth? Because it is built for the gut. Fire. Insult. Shock. Algorithms reward reaction, not accuracy. Is the government fixing this? On 10 October, Mei...
