What was claimed
An image shows a tree-lined road filled with protesters waving Union Jack flags.
Our verdict
This isn’t a real photo. It has almost certainly been created with artificial intelligence (AI).
Image of crowd waving Union Jacks isn't from recent London protest and is almost certainly AI
An image shared thousands of times online appears to show a crowd of protesters holding Union Jack flags. But it isn’t what it seems, and has almost certainly been created with artificial intelligence (AI).
One post including the picture, which has 130,000 like and ‘love’ reactions on Facebook, was shared on 13 September with the caption: “Wat [sic] a turnout.”
This was the same date as the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally which took place in London, and was organised by activist Tommy Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon). Elon Musk, who addressed the rally via video link, also reposted the picture on X (formerly Twitter).
But this picture is not from that event and isn’t genuine. It is very likely an AI-generated image.
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How do we know it’s not real?
Several clues suggest the picture was made using AI.
Firstly, although at first glance it resembles the iconic Mall in central London, the arch in the background appears to be the Arc de Triomphe, which is in Paris, rather than London’s Admiralty Arch, which is currently undergoing renovation.
Additionally there are other errors in the way the image presents both the supposed protesters, and the Union Jacks they are holding. Many of the flags can be seen morphing into each other, and into the people in the crowd.
Full Fact could find no evidence that the protest entered the Mall. When we debunk misleading AI content we often end up having to caveat our assessments—and saying that such content is “likely” or “almost certainly” AI-generated.
That’s because in many cases we cannot prove it hasn’t been edited or digitally created in some other way.
But convincing AI-generated content is becoming increasingly widespread, so it’s important to consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source before sharing images like this that you see on social media. Our guides to spotting AI content can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as altered because this is not a real picture, and has almost certainly been generated by AI.