Did a microphone cast an uncanny shadow across the upper lip of Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party? No, that's not true: The image circulating on social media has been altered. The original photo from 2016 shows the microphone, but no shadow on Weidel's face.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @berinszoka account on Bluesky on Sept. 8, 2026. It read:
Photo of the decade: AfD leader Alice Weidel
This is what the post looked like on Bluesky at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @berinszoka on Bluesky.)
The image dates back to April 30, 2016, when the AfD Federal Party Congress (Bundesparteitag) was held in Stuttgart, Germany (pictured below). The photo No. 1120 (archived here) is part of a gallery (archived here) of AfD photos on metropolico.org. The original photo of Weidel does not show a microphone shadow cast on her upper lip.
(Image source: metropolico.org.)
A video from the conference posted on YouTube (archived here) at the time it took place shows Weidel at 3 minutes, 34 seconds (embedded below). She is seated at the table on stage with the name card, the same assortment of beverage bottles, and a microphone -- and no shadow cast on her face.
The altered image with the microphone shadow is not new; one copy was published on Reddit on Aug. 20, 2021 (archived here).
