You’ve probably seen one of these images before. Some have gone viral on social media, racking up millions of views.
One of the most viewed of these images, in which a fan wearing a German jersey and waving a German flag at a World Cup stadium bears an uncanny resemblance to Adolf Hitler, was debunked by DW’s fact-checking team shortly after Germany’s World Cup match against Curaçao.
Some of these images are immediately obvious to be fake. Others may be easy for us to mistake for the real thing. Either way, the impact is being felt.
“This is an event where billions of people from all over the world, from different countries, different regions, and different political situations, will be watching the same game at the same time,” said Henry Ajder, one of the world’s leading experts on deepfakes and manipulated AI. “This is a perfect environment for people to start spreading deepfakes and AI-generated content.”
Alongside the more light-hearted World Cup deepfakes, many with political messages are also circulating. DW Fact Check investigates some of them and shows you how to spot fakes yourself.
Iranian protesters wearing pink backpacks?
While the conflict between Iran and the United States was still not over, Iran began its World Cup campaign against New Zealand, earning one point with a 2-2 (1-1) draw. But did one of the players really mark the result with a gesture of protest?
Claim: Image of an Iranian soccer player wearing a pink backpack It quickly spread on social media. “In honor of the 168 schoolgirls murdered by Donald Trump,” one post received nearly 3 million views.
DW Fact Check: fake
The image does not show any scenes from Iran’s World Cup matches, nor does it show any of Iran’s actual World Cup players.
No such protest took place against New Zealand, and the players in the photo do not match any of Iran’s World Cup squad.Iran’s actual World Cup jersey also looks different. The stadium doesn’t match either. The arena in the image looks noticeably different from the World Cup stadium in Los AngelesThe location where the game was played. The shape of the stand is also different.
However, there is a real story behind this fake story. At the game in Los Angeles, Iranian fans staged genuine protests in the stands, some mourning the children allegedly killed by the US at a school in the Iranian city of Minab.
reportby outlets such as new york times Survey by bellingcatIt has been pointed out that the US military may have been involved in the airstrike that killed more than 150 people. However, the viral image of the players protesting the incident was fabricated.
Keir Starmer in a Croatia jersey?
Would the British Prime Minister really pose in a rival team’s jersey just before England’s opening game? It seems unlikely, but social media makes us believe just that. An image shared on X shows Starmer smiling with three other people in a pub. All are wearing the jerseys of Croatia, England’s first opponents in this tournament.
Claim: As England won their opening game 4-2 (2-2), users shared photos with captions such as “Spotted at the London Inn in Dallas before the World Cup match between England and Croatia.” and “Starmer and his mates are ready for the game.”
DW Fact Check: fake
Just do a quick Google search for ‘Keir Starmer pub football fan’Displayed original photo:Same pub, same people, including former Labor deputy leader Angela Reiner, but different clothes. Three of them are wearing England jerseys, with Starmer wearing a plain white T-shirt. This photo is actually two years old and was taken around the time of the 2024 European Championships in Germany.
In other words, the jersey was almost certainly digitally altered with the help of AI tools.
The AI detector ZeroGPT flags that the image is likely generated by AI, and the jersey itself tells you that. Two have black collars, two have white collars, and the Croatian Federation (HNS) logo is blurred and inconsistently sized. Overall the jersey looks noticeably softer and lacks detail compared to the crisply rendered face.
Croatia’s current uniform It doesn’t look like the one in the photo.
Are these fans calling for Lula’s arrest?
Political protests are never welcome at the World Cup, but as the example of Iran shows, they keep happening anyway. However, some cases are worth revisiting.
Claim: “We would trade the sixth title for the imprisonment of Lula and Janja. Do you support it?” A photo circulating in X shows a sign that appears to have been held up by a fan.among others.
DW Fact Check: fake
After a 1-1 draw in the tournament’s opening match against Morocco and a difficult build-up to the World Cup, it is still an open question whether Brazil can dream of a sixth title. But what is clear is that the fan’s message is not true. ZeroGPT estimates the probability that the image was generated by AI to be 96%, and other AI detectors fall within the same range.
A closer look confirms this. The handwriting on the sign is suspiciously clean for something that appears to be handwritten. The text is too uniform, and the cardboard texture looks unnaturally smooth. The face of the sign holder has a shiny, idealized appearance, a clear sign of the AI generation.
If you zoom in further, the background becomes even more bizarre, with some of the faces looking unfinished and almost blending into the wall behind them. other versionsThis fake also appears, showing another person holding the exact same sign, and the AI detector flags them as being generated as well.
A spectacular opening ceremony with Iranian floats?
Approximately 1.2 billion peopleI watched the opening ceremony of the 2026 FIFA World Cup at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Much of the footage has since spread on social media, with some showing shows that never happened.
Claim: videoAn image shared by X claims to show the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Cup.
DW Fact Check: fake
The approximately five-minute clip features fireworks, dance numbers, and performances representing the participating countries. The actual opening ceremony looked completely different and featured a variety of artistic elements.
Please observe carefullyAnd the stadium itself provides that. In various shots, its roof is sometimes circular, sometimes oval, sometimes open, sometimes closed, changing shape repeatedly in the course of the “ritual”.
If you look closer, you’ll see the usual AI video, including visual artifacts, distorted objects, and blurred faces. Again, the AI detector will flag this as likely to be generated AI.
Another video claims to show a giant golden float symbolizing IranThe same ceremony has the same problem. There, too, the shape of the stadium changes in the middle of the video.
Deepfakes that leave traces
Now, thanks to widely available and easy-to-use AI tools, such fakes can be created quickly and spread almost as quickly during mega-events like the World Cup.
And they are not harmless.
“These kinds of moments are really energizing and very visceral for the audience. They influence the story and become, so to speak, a very hot topic that people around the world are paying attention to,” Ajdel said.
The lesson of this World Cup: Don’t fall for fakes, always pay attention to what’s being talked about online, not just the matches.
This article was originally written in German.
