AI-generated video of England flag hung on building works shared online

A video supposedly showing construction workers who have hung a massive St George’s flag from scaffolding on a high street building is AI-generated.

The clip has been shared on Facebook with the caption: “Do you support our hardworking British builders?”

A voice in the video can be heard saying: “Look at the lads on this building site today. They have just hung a massive St George’s flag right in the middle of the high street. True English working class pride.”

But visual inconsistencies clearly show that it isn’t real. These include large gibberish road markings, nonsensical shop signs and scaffolding constructed in a way that doesn’t make physical sense.

We also gave the footage to Professor Siwei Lyu, an expert in digital forensics at the University at Buffalo, and his team. He told us that AI-detection models flagged it as “fake or likely fake”.

He said his team found several inconsistencies including: “A worker whose lower legs merge into the scaffolding, a shop-window mannequin with only one rendered leg, blurred lettering above the window, and window edges that do not converge to a single vanishing point.”

We have also fact checked other videos from the same Facebook account that are AI-generated. The page deleted the video after being contacted by Full Fact, and did not respond to our requests for comment.

Images and videos made or edited with AI can be hard to distinguish from real photographs and footage. Our Misinformation Toolkit offers some tips and tricks to help verify what you’re looking at before you share it with others.