False: This image used in news reports on London protest likely AI-generated
An image of a large rally showing protesters waving Union Jack flags (the national flag of the United Kingdom) was widely shared on social media, accompanied by a claim that it depicted an anti-immigration protest in London on Sept. 13.
One Instagram post, shared on Sept. 14 by Indian media outlet Times Now, read: “A huge anti-immigration rally in London spiraled into violence as clashes broke out between protesters and police.” Times Now has over a million followers on Instagram, and the post garnered over 1,800 likes.
Other Indian media outlets, including Free Press Journal, Jansatta, and Khabarogon, also used the same image in their coverage. It was also widely circulated through social media posts in Korean, Japanese, and Spanish.
However, this image does not show the protest organized by political activist Tommy Robinson in mid-September. Many signs indicate that the news image was created by a generative AI tool.
A reverse image search, for example, reveals that the image’s background features a structure that resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.
A comparison with photographs of the Arc de Triomphe, including one from iStock by photographer Jerome Delaunay and another provided by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, confirms the resemblance, which led us to suspect the image is not an authentic news photo taken in London, but most likely AI-generated.
Another telltale sign was the U.K. flags in the image, some of which are distorted with blurred elements, merged patterns (highlighted in blue), and inconsistent designs (highlighted in green, yellow, and orange):
Our investigation also found that the same image was previously shared on Aug. 31 by a now-suspended account on X, two weeks before the London protest.
This account, @Fatima_Khatun01, had a history of sharing misinformation. The false claims circulated by the user include:
- a video of Muslim female students in Indonesia with a false claim that they are protesters in London;
- footage of a church on fire in Wales, with false claims blaming Pakistani migrants;
- a video of a mother with two premature children in Vietnam, falsely describing that a 12-year-old girl in Pakistan gave birth after marrying a 60-year-old Muslim man.
Fact-checking organizations, including Misbar, Reuters, and the Quint (archived here, here, and here), debunked those claims.
The suspended account uses a profile name, “Fatima Khan,” the same name as a known journalist who has reported for such publications as The Quint, Jacobin, and New Line Magazine.
According to BBC, between 110,000 and 150,000 people attended the “Unite the Kingdom” protest on Sept. 13 in London; 26 police officers were reportedly injured during clashes (archived here).
Lead Stories also investigated the same image and concluded that it was AI-generated (archived here).
