Photo of army chasing Argentina supporters is AI-generated
A video has circulated on Facebook showing several individuals standing on a road wearing Argentina jerseys and holding flags. Four individuals dressed in army uniforms are rushing toward them. On the other side of the road, two army tanks are visible. An image of such a scenario has spread with claims that supporters were beaten by the army for marching with Argentina’s flag. However, a fact-check by Dismislab reveals that the scene is AI-generated.
On June 17, the photo was posted from a personal Facebook profile with the caption, “Because of marching on the street with Argentina’s flag, a light thrashing by the army, 10 injured. Argentina supporter brothers did you get angry?” Up until the writing of this report, the photo has been shared 434 times. More than 3,100 reactions have been recorded.
In the photo, a bus is visible behind the individuals wearing Argentina jerseys. On the other side of the road, a billboard is also seen in front of the tanks.
In a different post, the same photo was also used in the form of a photo card. The photo card was posted from a personal profile. Inside the picture, it was written, “10 injured in a light thrashing by the army because of marching on the street with Argentina’s flag out of joy. Are you angry?” In this photo, the Gemini logo is visible in the bottom right corner. When an image is edited using a model named “Nano Banana” of Google Assistant Gemini, such a watermark remains on the edited image.
The photo was posted with the same claim from multiple (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) personal Facebook profiles.
To verify the authenticity of the circulated photo, Dismislab tested it using Google’s AI detection tool SynthID and Hive Moderation. The Google SynthID result stated, “Analyzing the image reveals that it has been created or edited using Google AI technology.”
The image was also tested in a specialized detection tool reliant on Google’s ‘SynthID’ technology. This tool analyzes the digital watermark of the image and displays visual results. The test yielded evidence of the presence of artificial intelligence in the middle section of the image. The tool’s detection confidence level was ‘very high’ (Very High). In the resulting heatmap, the entire portion of the image, except for the top and bottom sections, was marked with a blue grid. In SynthID terminology, this means that signs of Google AI were detected in those specific parts of the images.
Subsequently, when the image was tested on Hive Moderation, the results showed that the probability of it being AI-generated is nearly 80 percent. Additionally, Dismislab found no such incident or original photo through a search of relevant keywords.
That is to say, the photo of the army chasing Argentina supporters is generated with artificial intelligence or AI.
