Viral image of Banksy mural featuring English flag is digitally altered • FRANCE 24 English

Charlotte Hughes is with us in studio for all the latest. This week’s fact check focuses on the elusive yet renowned street artist Banksy and uh his most recent artwork. Charlotte, tell us more. Yes, after Banksy posted his most recent artwork which is at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, some social media users have been widely circulating an image alleging that this artwork shows a judge attacking a protester who is brandishing the English flag. Here’s the image in question. This was in a post on X which garnered more than 1 million views and the person who posted it said it was showing a judge attacking a patriotic protester. Now, as I was looking through the comments on this post, there were mixed reactions. Some very skeptical as to whether this image was true. One person here saying Banksy wouldn’t do this. Others, however, hailing the image. This person said that it showed a it was a show of support from Banksy for the British people. However, those who were showing skepticism were in fact correct. The image was digitally modified and it is therefore fake. Well, how did you come to that conclusion, Charlotte? And with Banksy being so elusive, how do we tell if a mural or piece of work is actually authentic here? Well, if we do a reverse image search on that image, it takes us to Banksy’s official Instagram account. He unveiled the piece on Monday along with the caption Royal Courts of Justice London. Here is the original mural and it depicts a judge beating a demonstrator who is brandishing a blank placard spattered with blood as opposed to the English flag. So the mural is not representing a specific image or um a specific cause or incident per se, but some have interpreted it as referring to pro Palestine protests. This of course because the um image appeared 2 days after nearly 900 people were arrested at a London demonstration against the ban on the group pro uh Palestine Action. Now, court officials have since announced that the mural is being removed and they say this is the case because the image the um building on which it appeared is a listed building. Therefore, they say they have to maintain the original character of the building and this is what the mural looks like. Now, very eerie indeed. In terms of how we can tell whether a Banksy artwork is authentic, that is a very good question because um just last year Italian police uncovered a criminal network forging the works of artists including Banksy. The pieces had a potential sale value of around €200 million as this BBC article explains. So a good way to check for authenticity as I mentioned earlier is to look at Banksy’s official uh social media accounts. There’s also a company called Pest Control which issues a certificate of authenticity alongside genuine pieces. So if a piece does not have this document alongside it, it is likely not a Banky. That’s a really intense security that uh that had to get through to make that uh painting possible. Uh it’s not the only fake image though. What what you’ve just shown us there uh featured featuring the English or British flag that has gone viral in recent days, is it Charlotte? No, it’s not. Uh, some social media users have also been circulating an image alleging to show a huge crowd of people waving Union Jack flags. This is one post that I saw during the rounds on Twitter and it garnered 1.1 million views. It was posted alongside the caption UK forever. There is another post here again that racked up a ton of views and this person posted it with the caption, I quote, “Rooting for the Patriots over in the UK. Take back your country.” However, like the Banksy image with the English flag, this image is false. It was actually created using AI. If we take a closer look, we can actually see some inconsistencies in the image. For instance, some of the flags, this one here and this one over here, are poorly rendered. When it was put through an AI detection tool, the software found that there was a very high chance, more than 88% chance that it was AI generated. But while this image was is false, there are actually uh thousands of English and Union Jack flags that have been springing up across cities in uh the UK. The groups responsible say they are motivated by patriotism and pride. One such Birmingham based group said they wanted to show quote how proud we are of our history, freedoms, and achievements. However, others say they find the flags intimidating and they’ve questioned the motive with the English flag, of course, being associated with some from the far right. The anti-racist group, Hope Not Hate, points to the fact that some of the key organizers of this flag movement are far-right activists, including Tommy Robinson. Some also view the movement as provocative given that it comes at a time when tensions of course are running high in the UK over the issue of immigration. Charlotte, I couldn’t also help but notice the utter thump in the background of that image with all the British flags. So always keep your eye on the artificial intelligence there. Charlotte Hughes with truth or fake. That’s it. Where?

After Banksy revealed his latest work, some social media users widely circulated an image alleging that it depicted a judge attacking a protester holding an English flag. But the image was digitally altered to include the flag, as France 24’s Charlotte Hughes explains.
#banksy #tommyrobinson #fakenews

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7 comments

  7. They don't see the irony of Banksy protesting the loss of free speech and rise of censorship and they come along and censor the image.
    Proves his point.

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