On February 4, 2024, Facebook users, including Bondo Mdzinarashvili, the member of the board of Trustees of the Public Broadcaster shared (1,2,3,4,5,6) a photo on which the Eiffel Tower can be seen against the background of tall haystacks and tractors. Some Facebook users are linking the photo to the ongoing farmers’ protests in Paris.
The same photo has been actively disseminated by Russian-speaking Facebook users (1,2,3,4,5,6).
The circulated photo does not depict real events and is generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The mentioned photo was published on Instagram by user ifonly.ai on February 1. However, after the photo went viral on social media, ifonly.ai took it down from its profile. According to the ifonly.ai profile, he is an artist who creates various visuals using the artificial intelligence program Midjourney. In the image of haystacks and the Eiffel Tower, ifonly.ai has indicated that the visuals are generated using artificial intelligence. It should be noted that in the description of the post, ifonly.ai also requests the users, in order to avoid the spread of false information, to indicate during the distribution of photos that it is generated using artificial intelligence and does not reflect reality.
After the photo went viral on social media and was verified by several publications, ifonly.ai removed the photo. The user published several posts on Instagram stories, from which it can be seen that the post was labelled as “altered image” with the article by the Italian fact-checking service Open, which is why the user later deleted the photo from the account.
ifonly.ai also posted other photos on the same topic, which are currently available on the account. The photos are related to the farmers’ protests held in France.
At the end of January, large-scale farmers’ protests were held in France. Farmers blocked important highways into Paris with tractors. The protest also moved to Paris, and farmers in the capital dumped fertilizer and spoiled products in front of government buildings. Farmers are protesting the deteriorating financial situation in recent years due to various reasons – the increase in the volume of cheap imported products, the lack of subsidies, and the increased price of production. In the wake of the protests, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal promised changes to farmers, including financial subsidies, tax breaks, and an agreement to ban imports of agricultural products grown with pesticides banned in the EU. After the government’s concessions, the two largest French farmers’ unions, the Young Farmers and the National Federation of Farmers’ Unions, declared the protest over. Farmers also held protests in other European countries.
About the Sources:
Bondo Mdzinarashvili is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Georgian Public Broadcaster and the former editor-in-chief of TV “Obieqtivi”. False information spread by him has been debunked by “Myth Detector” many times in the past.
According to one of the profiles of Facebook user Levan Mamforia, he is a member of the conservative party movement in Chkhorotsku. Mamforia has several Facebook profiles (1,2,3) and actively publishes posts supporting the conservative movement and Alt-Info. The disinformation spread by Mamforia was debunked by “Myth Detector” in the past as well (1,2).
Facebook user Daviti Dadiani regularly publishes posts with anti-Western content. “Myth Detector” has verified the false information spread by Dadian a number of times in the past.
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