Did an authentic photo show protesters in Turkey in March 2025, dressed as The Joker, Batman, Pikachu and Spiderman? No, that's not true: the image was AI-generated and was first posted by an X user whose bio contained the disclaimer "All content generated by AI." The fake photo, and other similar ones posted by the same user, alluded to authentic video footage of a real protester wearing a Pikachu costume.
The photo was shared in earnest in an X post on March 27, 2025, (archived here) along with the caption:
Protests in Turkey look like something right out of the Joker movie.
Here's what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X.com screenshot)
However, the photo was not an authentic record of a real scene. Rather, it was the product of generative AI. It was originally posted (archived here), earlier on March 27, by X user Eren Fazlıoğlu, whose bio (archived here) bore the disclaimer "All content generated by AI":
(Source: X.com screenshot)
The proliferation of fictional characters in the image was an allusion to an earlier video, apparently authentic, which showed a protester in Turkey dressed in a Pikachu costume:
(Source: X.com screenshot)
Fazlıoğlu posted other AI-generated images (here and here) of fictional characters -- including Pikachu, Catwoman, Batman, The Hulk, and Iron Man -- taking part in the protests.
