China has rapidly developed drone countermeasure technologies in recent years, but online footage supposedly showing one such system in action is AI-generated. The circulating clip was originally posted by a social media account that regularly publishes animated warfare content, while an analysis found several visual errors indicating the visual is inauthentic.
“Is this a Chinese anti-drone defence system? It’s so cool! It seems to be a superpower in that field,” reads a Weibo post in simplified Chinese shared on August 19, 2026.
The accompanying 24-second video depicts laser beams shooting down swarms of drones and trapping them in glowing energy nets — with text overlay at the bottom saying “counter-drone technology”.
Similar posts that misrepresented the visual as genuine spread in multiple languages on X, TikTok, Threads and Facebook, receiving over five million views combined.
Screenshot of false Weibo post taken on August 26, 2026, with a red X and an AI symbol added by AFP
Experts say the surge of drone use in conflicts worldwide — seen most vividly in the Ukraine and Middle East wars — accelerates the race to develop high-power laser systems that could down the devices far more cheaply than traditional defensive weapons ( archived link).
It is a critical issue for governments threatened by low-cost, easily obtainable drones that can wreak outsize destruction, and are usually shot down only by the most advanced — and expensive — missile technologies.
China dominates the global anti-drone patent landscape, according to a March 2026 study from UK-based intellectual property law firm Mathys and Squire ( archived link).
Comments to the circulating posts indicate many social media users believed the video was genuine.
“So cool! This can defeat the United States and dominate the world!” one user said, while another wrote: “China is always 10 years behind in technology versus the United States”.
However, the clip is AI-generated.
A keyword search for “counter-drone technology” on Douyin surfaced the original video published on March 22, with a caption that reads: “Drones Are No Longer Invincible: These Technologies Are Changing the Rules” ( archived link).
The video was labelled as AI-generated — and a similar disclaimer in tiny text is visible in the higher-quality version of the footage.
Screenshot comparison of false Weibo post (L) and original Douyin video with the AI label highlighted
The Douyin user — whose name “Battlefield Imagination Bureau” is also overlaid on the clip — regularly posts AI-generated videos featuring military equipment ( archived link).
AFP reached out for comment to the user, who has over 27,000 followers and is registered in China’s Jiangsu province, but a response was not forthcoming.
Moreover, the video contains visual inconsistencies, including laser beams bending and curving in mid-air, and the depicted drones constantly becoming distorted.
Screenshots of the false Weibo post, with visual inconsistencies highlighted and AI labels added by AFP
An analysis by the Hive Moderation detection tool also found the video was likely to contain AI-generated content ( archived link).
Screenshot of the Hive Moderation analysis taken August 25, 2026, with an AI label added by AFP
More of our reporting on AI-powered misinformation can be found here.
