A widely shared video supposedly showing people hanging large Palestinian and Jordanian flags from the top of the Eiffel Tower was made using artificial intelligence.
Profiles posting the clip claim that it shows pro-Palestinian protesters unfurling a large Palestinian flag from the famous French landmark. Another simply says “Paris as [sic] Fallen 🇫🇷 🙏” with one stating “you have destroyed Paris”.
However, when Full Fact put the video through Meta’s AI detector it told us that AI signatures were found, indicating it had been created using generative AI.
There are also visual clues that the footage isn’t real, including sections of the tower not matching up with real photos of the landmark and the metal frame warping and blending into itself when the video pans up.
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The earliest version we could find online was posted by an Instagram account, which describes itself as an “audiovisual and AI content creator”. The caption, translated from Spanish, labels it as “unreal content – AI”.
A Palestinian flag was hung from a different part of the Eiffel Tower earlier this year, when members of Extinction Rebellion France displayed it on 15 May for the anniversary of the Nakba.
But we could not find any news reports or other credible sources sharing images of the two flags being displayed at the top of the tower recently.
Before sharing content like this that you come across online, it’s important to consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source. Our misinformation toolkit contains tips on how to do this.
