Do viral images and videos of a person dressed as the cartoon character Pink Panther actually show October 2026 protests in France? No, that's not true: Results from three online tools showed that this content was produced by AI. Manual reverse image searches revealed that, in several instances, AI was used to modify old, unrelated photos that predated the French rallies.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X published by @introvers45 on Oct. 19, 2026. It read:
The Pink Panther who stole the whole spotlight in recent Paris riots!
This is what a screenshot of the video in the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @introvers45 on X.)
The same post contained a gallery of similar still images seen below:
(Image source: post by @introvers45 on X.)
These still images from the post were also made by AI, as shown below.
On Oct. 17, 2026, the @fredericvignale account on Instagram appeared to have been first to publish (archived here) the black-and-white clip featuring the Pink Panther based on earlier still images (archived here) circulating on social media. The initial description of the video said it was not real footage. That caption read:
This creation is a purely artistic and poetic expression. It promotes no ideology or political party and is in no way directed against the police. It simply celebrates freedom of expression, imagination, and poetry.
(Image source: post by @fredericvignale on Instagram.)
Two online AI detection tools, Hive Moderation and Sightengine, placed the odds of the video and pictures from the post being AI close to 100% in most cases:
(Image source: Hive Moderation.)
(Image source: Sightengine.)
One more tool, SynthID, which searches for an invisible watermark pointing to AI from participating companies, confirmed that none of the four examples that are the focus of this fact check were authentic:
(Image source: SynthID.)
Lead Stories additionally tested the still image that prompted the creation of the black-and-white clip. It was made by AI, too:
(Image source: SynthID.)
Lead Stories found that the image of the Pink Panther showing middle fingers supposedly to the authorities was a modified version of a real photo of 2015 protests in Armenia (archived here). That image showed no people dressed as any cartoon characters.
In another instance, the mascot replaced a person in black being carried by law enforcement. According to that photo's caption (archived here), found on Getty Images, it captured "anti-riot police officers" detaining "a person as Paris Saint-Germain supporters celebrate after PSG won the UEFA Champions League final football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Inter Milan held in Munich, on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on May 31, 2025." Thus, this much earlier photo couldn't show the October 2026 protests.
Finally, the image from the post reviewed in this fact check that supposedly showed the Panther surrounded by a group of people in protective masks with what appears to be a baton originally showed 2010 Greek protests. As of this writing, it still could be found (archived here) on the Alamy stock image database.
As of Oct. 21, 2026, a search across Google News (archived here) using the search term "pink panther france protest" didn't show any reports from established media organizations describing images or videos of a person dressed as the Pink Panther as real depictions of protests in France.
By then, however, AI-generated content featuring made-up protest scenes with participation of one or many Pink Panthers was spreading over social media. For example, one video (archived here) supposedly showed the mascot fighting police in riot gear using a baguette that was never damaged after a series of blows.
