Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel
The dust had barely settled on the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s (SLPP) “Jana Satana” rally at the Anuradhapura Municipal Council grounds on September 12, 2026, before false and misleading claims began sweeping social media. Some posts boasted of a record-breaking crowd, while another placed party figures and a Buddhist monk at a table of liquor bottles. Here are the posts, and what our fact-check found.
Social Media Posts
One post, carrying a photograph and describing a “record-breaking river of people” at the Anuradhapura grounds for the Podujana Peramuna rally, spread widely. A closer look at the photos in that post is presented below.
Another post carried further photographs presented as scenes from the same rally.
Fact-Check
The SLPP rally at the Anuradhapura Municipal Council grounds on September 12 was broadcast live through mainstream media and the party’s own social media pages. That live broadcast is below. The scenes in several of the viral photos cannot be found anywhere in the rally’s live footage.
Drone footage and photos of the rally were also published through mainstream media and the SLPP’s official accounts.
Our investigation found that the photos showing enormous crowds in the viral post do not appear in any official news report or credible source covering the SLPP rally.
One Photo Actually Shows a Rally in Bangladesh
One image in the viral post contained a signboard written in Hindi, which made it unlikely to be a scene from Sri Lanka. A reverse image search led to an international news report from 2025 carrying the same photo. It actually shows the launch rally of the “National Citizen Party” (NCP), held on February 28, 2025, on Manik Mia Avenue in Dhaka, Bangladesh. According to The Guardian, student leaders who spearheaded the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina’s government launched the party near the parliament building in Dhaka, backed by thousands of supporters. The same image is catalogued on Alamy.
Several Photos Show Clear Signs of AI Generation
Other photos presented as the Anuradhapura rally showed unnatural features. In one, crowds appear even behind the stage. In another, identical people are repeated in various parts of the same frame. Spelling errors also appear on the signage of shops in the background of some images.
The Genuine Rally Photos Tell a Different Story
The official photos and live broadcast of the SLPP’s Anuradhapura rally differ significantly from the images shared in the viral posts. A side-by-side comparison of the claimed photos and the genuine ones is shown below.
Given these unnatural patterns, we ran the images through several AI-content detection tools, which confirmed that they had been generated using artificial intelligence.
Claim 2: SLPP Figures and a Monk at a Table of Liquor
A separate photo circulated claiming to show several Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna politicians, along with a Buddhist monk, seated around a table with several bottles of alcohol.
Facebook | Archived Link Facebook | Facebook
We set out to verify whether this photo was genuine, but no credible source had published it.
The Liquor Photo Is Also AI-Generated
A closer look reveals several unnatural features. The fingers and hands of people near the steps appear inconsistent and oddly positioned. The way light falls on the bottles and glasses, and their reflections, does not match the ambient lighting of the surroundings.
Taking these features into account, we ran the photo through AI-content detection tools, which confirmed it too had been created using artificial intelligence.
Join us to learn more about our fact-check investigations.
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Google News | TikTok
Conclusion
The photos shared as record crowds at the SLPP’s Anuradhapura “Jana Satana” rally are misleading. One image is a 2025 photograph of the National Citizen Party launch in Dhaka, Bangladesh, confirmed through The Guardian and Alamy. Several others, including the photo of party figures and a monk at a table of liquor, carry the hallmarks of AI generation, such as repeated figures, distorted hands, and inconsistent lighting, and AI-detection tools confirmed them as artificially generated. None of these scenes appears in the rally’s live broadcast or in genuine media coverage.
Title: SLPP Anuradhapura Rally Photos Are Misleading: Bangladesh Crowd and AI-Generated Images Falsely Shared
Fact Check By: B. P. Hansani
Result: Misleading
