Australian PM's viral video banning visas for Pakistanis is AI-generated

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised a sweeping crackdown to stamp out extremism as the country reeled from the deadly shooting at Bondi Beach, but contrary to widely shared social media posts he did not announce a blanket ban on visas for people from Pakistan. A clip purportedly showing Albanese making the announcement was generated using AI.

ऑस्ट्रेलिया के प्रधानमंत्री ने पाकिस्तानी इस्लामिक आतंकवादी द्वारा हमले के बाद सभी पाकिस्तानियों का वीज़ा रद्द करने का फ़ैसला लिया है। पूरी दुनिया इस कौम से परेशान है, और भारत में कहा जाता है कि अब्दुल हिंदुओं के मोहल्ले में घर क्यों नहीं ख़रीद सकता।@KarishmaAziz_ @azizkavish… pic.twitter.com/PMkHLKFfGO

— 𝙼𝚛 𝚃𝚢𝚊𝚐𝚒 (@mktyaggi) December 14, 2025

“The Australian Prime Minister has decided to cancel visas for all Pakistanis following the attack by Pakistani Islamic terrorists,” reads the caption of a Facebook video posted by an India-based user on December 15, 2025.

The six-second video appears to show Albanese saying: “Pakistani-origin terrorist Naveed Akram has been arrested today’s terror attack. Australia is suspending all visa services for Pakistani effective immediately.”

The same video was shared in a similar X post, while the claim about the supposed visa ban was also shared elsewhere on Facebook.

The posts surfaced after Albanese promised a sweeping crackdown to banish the “evil of antisemitism from our society”, following the deadly shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on December 14.

A father and son, 50-year-old Sajid Akram and 24-year-old Naveed, are accused of firing into crowds at a beachside Jewish festival, killing 15 in an attack authorities linked to “Islamic State ideology” (archived link). Sajid was killed in a shootout with police but Naveed survived.

The prime minister announced plans for several measures, including giving the home affairs minister new powers “to cancel or reject visas for those who spread hate and division” (archived link).

But a spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Home Affairs told AFP on December 19: “There have not been any changes on visa services or applications for those applying for a visa from Pakistan.”

There have also been no official reports that Albanese had identified either the father or son accused of carrying out the attack as a Pakistan national.

In a press conference on December 15, Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke said “the son is an Australian citizen” and the father had originally arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998 (archived link). He did not give any information about his nationality.

According to Indian police, Sajid was an Indian citizen (archived link).

“Sajid Akram is originally from Hyderabad, India. He… migrated to Australia in search of employment approximately 27 years ago, in November 1998,” police in India’s southern state of Telangana said.

Moreover, an analysis of the circulating video of Albanese found errors that indicate it was generated using AI.

His lip movements do not match his speech, which is stilted and does not resemble his speaking voice (archived link).

A reverse image search using keyframes from the falsely shared video found it appears to have been generated from images of Albanese that predate the Bondi shooting.

A corresponding picture appeared in a report from Australian daily The Age on August 4, 2022, about his Labor Party’s climate bill passing the lower house (archived link).

British newspaper The Guardian also published a video of the same press conference, showing the same setting as the falsely shared clip (archived link).