Did protestors chant ‘no queso, no cheese’ at National Guard? Here's the truth behind viral video

A viral video shows protestors chanting “no queso, no cheese” before being pepper-sprayed by a Guard officer, but it’s AI-generated and fake.

A video has gone viral on social media in which two protestors can be seen chanting 'no queso, no cheese' at a National Guard officer on two different occasions. After the aggressive chants, the officer on both occasions can be seen spraying what looks like an organic pepper spray at the protester, after which they scream 'I can't see,' in pain.

An ICE officer watches protestors as a Lenco BearCat vehicle drives to the scene in the Brighton Park neighborhood of Chicago.(AP)

The video has garnered millions of views on social media over the past couple of days. However, the video is fake and likely AI-generated, according to a fact-check done by the BBC. It is one of the many videos that have gone viral amid protests erupting over President Donald Trump's push to send National Guard to Democrat ruled states, such as California, Chicago, and most recently, Oregon.

Here's the viral video:

As Thomas Copeland of BBC Verify noted in its report, the video carries the watermark of Sora - the latest video generation model of OpenAI. Additionally, at the 2-second mark of the video, a hand can be seen holding back a protester. The hand looks distorted, with more fingers than can be seen in humans, which is a common characteristic of AI-generated videos.

Protests Against National Guard Deployment

With Trump's push to deploy the National Guard in Democrat-ruled states, protests against the Trump administration in the states concerned have erupted and spread like wildfire over the last two months. The first state to be threatened with National Guard was Chicago where thousands rallied against Trump's move. Chicago and Illinois sued to block Trump’s Guard deployment, arguing it’s unconstitutional and harmful to state sovereignty.

Meanwhile, in Portland, Oregon, protests intensified around ICE facilities — tear gas, flash-bangs, and arrests followed a ruling blocking the federal deployment. Oregon’s governor strongly condemned federal efforts, called the deployments unlawful, and demanded troops be withdrawn.