Video showing protester being pepper-sprayed by ‘Sgt. Pepper’ is AI nonsense

In October 2025, as protesters clashed with U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) law enforcement in U.S. cities like Chicago and Portland, a video (archived) circulated online purportedly showing a protester yelling at a soldier, demanding the person’s name, before being pepper-sprayed in the face as the soldier replied: “Sergeant Pepper.”

One Threads user even claimed it showed an “Antifa” protester, the word being shorthand for anti-fascist and a colloquial term for a political movement and ideology opposing fascism. The caption read (archived): “Antifa meet Sergeant Pepper.”

The clip featured a man wearing a dark hoodie shouting at another man wearing a camouflage uniform holding an orange spray can. The man in the hoodie screamed: “What’s your name soldier? What’s your name soldier? Tell me your name. What’s your name soldier? Yeah, you hear me? What’s your name soldier? What’s your name soldier?” The man in the camouflage uniform then raised the orange can and sprayed the hooded man directly in the face and replied: “Sergeant Pepper.”

The video also circulated on X (archived), Facebook (archived), TikTok (archived) and YouTube (archived). Some people who commented noticed the footage was fake, while others said they wished it were real.

Throughout the nine-second clip, the watermark for Sora — an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model that generates video and audio from user prompts — was visible. OpenAI, an AI research and development company, launched Sora 2 on Sept. 30, 2025, after which a flood of AI-generated footage spilled across social media networks. In a news release that day, OpenAI said all outputs on its platform would “carry a visible watermark” to distinguish it as AI content (archived).

The audio and visuals in the video in question also showed multiple signs that the clip was AI-generated. Given the above, we have rated the footage as fake.

Telltale AI signs

The audio provided multiple giveaways that the video was AI-generated. The movement of the man in the hoodie’s mouth did not always synchronize with what he was saying and the audio missed key features normally heard on the frontline of a protest. Such footage generally includes lots of people shouting or noise from other sources, such as instruments and speakers in the background. The audio in this clip featured none of this despite a crowd being visible in the footage.

Sora, the AI model that created the video, also fell short on some visual details. For example, though the insignia on the so-called sergeant’s uniform was almost correct for a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army, the real insignia has a dark outer border. The “sergeant” also had double lines on his insignia where the official U.S. Army insignia did not. His insignia did not match any of those viewable on the Department of Defense website (which was rebranded to the Department of War by President Donald Trump).

(Instagram user @thetankguns/Department of Defense)

There were also issues with the pepper spray and the “sergeant’s” right hand. The footage appeared to show him holding the can of pepper spray, though a closer look revealed he was barely touching it. For most of the clip, the bottle also looked like it was leaking orange spray in a way that would be unlikely for a regular spray can. Finally, his finger was nowhere near the trigger when it first started spraying and he was missing his little finger by the time he lowered his hand.

(Instagram user @thetankguns)

Missing fingers and unnaturally smooth textures, such as the skin of the hooded man, are often telltale signs that visuals are AI-generated.

Snopes previously debunked another AI video that purportedly showed an army general telling National Guard troops that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration deployed them to Portland, Oregon, to distract from alleged files concerning the deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.