Video of Palestinian flag on Eiffel Tower is AI-generated
A video was recently spread on Facebook and X claiming that protesters hung a Palestinian flag at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the video was created using artificial intelligence (AI).
On October 19, the video was posted from a Facebook page named “Prime News.” The 8-second video shows a flag flying at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Another huge flag hangs higher up on the tower, and the figures of several people can also be seen there. The post read, “Protesters Send Message to the World by Hanging Palestinian Flag on Eiffel Tower | Prime News.”
As of the report’s publication, the video had been viewed more than 10,000 times.
The same video has also spread on X. On October 19, it was posted from an account named “Nanibarbosa,” with a caption in Portuguese reading, “Parabéns, @EmmanuelMacron. Você destruiu Paris.” In English, this translates to, “Congratulations, Emmanuel Macron. You have destroyed Paris.” That post had been viewed more than 2.1 million times.
Dismislab examined the video closely, beginning with the two flags. In the video, one flag flies atop the antenna mast at the summit, and another huge flag hangs from the upper deck. Both flags have three horizontal stripes of black, white, and green, with a red triangle on the left side. However, the red triangle of the upper flag contains a five-pointed white star, while the lower flag has no star. The red triangle of the Palestinian flag has no star, whereas the red triangle of Jordan’s flag has a seven-pointed white star. In other words, the same video shows two flags of different designs.
Dismislab analyzed the video with the AI detection tool Hive Moderation. Hive Moderation reported a 65.3 percent probability that the video was created using AI.
It is worth noting that on May 15, a Palestinian flag was actually hung from the Eiffel Tower, but on its second floor. On that day, to mark Nakba Day, activists of the environmental group Extinction Rebellion hung a Palestinian flag on the tower’s second floor. According to an AFP report, six people were arrested over the incident.
In other words, the video of a Palestinian flag being hung at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris is not real; it was created using AI.
