Overview
- Viral pictures that appeared after Spain beat Argentina on July 19 claimed to show 19-year-old Lamine Yamal draped in a Palestinian flag or holding a keffiyeh on the pitch, but those images are not authentic.
- Multiple forensic services, including OpenAI's image verification, TheHive Moderation, Unsurface, ZeroGPT and Sightengine, flagged SynthID traces and other signs that the visuals were generated or altered by AI.
- AFP traced early versions of the altered keffiyeh images to an Instagram user who describes themself as an “AI artist,” and Lead Stories found the flag image first posted to an X account on July 19.
- News-wire and broadcast photos from outlets such as the Associated Press, Getty Images and ITV show the same celebration scenes from Spain’s June 21 match with Saudi Arabia without any keffiyeh or Palestinian flag, making the viral posts clear edits of real pictures.
- The episode highlights how a prior May incident in which Yamal waved a Palestinian flag at FC Barcelona celebrations made fabricated visuals more believable and shows why journalists and the public must verify images before sharing them.