Fact check: Were you fooled by these fake World Cup images?

The World Cup has officially kicked off, and with it so has a wave of AI-generated misinformation — ranging from fake fans in the stands, fabricated political appearances and false quotes attributed to players.

One viral image, which garnered more than 3 million views in one post on X, showed a football supporter resembling Adolf Hitler, who allegedly attended the Germany-Curaçao game on 14 June.

The image spread across Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Reddit, accompanied by posts in English, Spanish and Russian, some gaining thousands of views.

But in fact, it was digitally manipulated: a review of the original footage published by German broadcaster ARD shows that the real fan looked nothing like the one in the photo.

Processing the picture through OpenAI’s image verification tool also revealed a SynthID watermark, which confirms that the photo “originated from OpenAI” and was therefore created or altered using artificial intelligence.

Another image falsely places Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the stands during Argentina’s match against Austria on 22 June.

However, there are no credible reports that Netanyahu attended the game, and the image also contained signs that it had been generated or altered using AI.

Footballers targeted in miscaptioned posts

A different post with 3 million views on X claimed that Swedish football player Lucas Bergvall told journalists that all women who had a crush on him should “stop voting for mass migration.”

But the clip is not actually from the World Cup: the footage can be traced back to March, when Swedish sports broadcaster Viaplay uploaded it to TikTok.

In reality, Bergvall said nothing about immigration in this interview.

Instead, he answered questions ahead of Sweden’s anticipated World Cup qualifier against Poland, in which it won 3-2.

“Like you said, it’s nice to be able to play in the last game,” Bergvall said in response to the interviewer’s question about his role in the game at the time. “Against Poland it’s up to the coach who plays, but I’m ready if I get to start or not at all. It feels good.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Croatia jersey?

Another false image depicting the UK’s outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a Croatia jersey, alongside former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, has surfaced on social media since the beginning of the World Cup.

However, the image has in fact been manipulated.

With a reverse image search, we located the original photo, which was published on X by Angela Rayner in June 2024, and later picked up in publications such as The Telegraph newspaper.

In the original picture — taken around the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship in Germany — Starmer is wearing a white T-Shirt, whereas Rayner is wearing an England jersey.

AI-manipulated images of Iranian team

An image of an alleged member of Iran’s World Cup squad holding up a pink backpack went viral on social media, after it was presented as a tribute to the school children who were killed during a deadly strike carried out on the Iranian city of Minab on 28 February.

One example of the image, which garnered more than 2 million views on X, claims to show a player holding up a backpack with the caption, “Paying Tribute to the 168 school girls murdered by Donald Trump.”

It also circulated on X and Bluesky, with additional posts viewed by thousands.

Iranian football players did bring children’s backpacks on the pitch in March, during a friendly match against Nigeria in Turkey.

But this image is a fake. This can be verified because the pictured player is not part of the Iranian squad, and his kit also does not match the Iranian team’s official World Cup outfit.

The stadium is also different from the one in which the game took place in Los Angeles, and OpenAI’s verification tool found the image contained a SynthID.

Neither the US nor Israel have claimed responsibility for the strike, with US President Donald Trump initially suggesting that Iran was at fault.

Investigations by The New York Times and investigative outlet Bellingcat found evidence that a US Tomahawk cruise missile was used in the incident.

On Wednesday, Trump said it may never be determined who was responsible for the strike. The Pentagon opened an internal US military investigation into the incident, the results of which have not yet been made public.

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