Does a viral collage actually document the Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower lit in blue to celebrate Democratic wins in the 2026 midterms? No, that's not true: Five online tools determined that the picture contained generative AI. No established news outlets reported that the two sights turned blue for this occasion.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook where it was published by @razasamo8 on Nov. 5, 2026. It read:
Whether Niagara Falls in Canada, the Eiffel Tower in France, or Rome's historic landmarks were actually illuminated to celebrate the Democratic victory remains unverified. But one thing is clear: the election has sparked excitement and enthusiasm among Democratic supporters, not just in America but among people around the world. Political moments can inspire conversations far beyond national borders. The real message is that democracy, public participation, and people's voices continue to matter everywhere.
The text on the composite image read:
WHAT'S MAKING ALL OF THIS EVEN MORE AMAZING IS HOW THE WORLD, THE FCKING WORLD, IS CELEBRATING THESE WINS WITH US.
This is what the collage looked like on Facebook at the time of publication:
(Image source: post by @razasamo8 on Facebook.)
The composite image showed three sights turning blue: the Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower and Niagara Falls. Lead Stories previously fact-checked the claim about Niagara Falls. As stated in that fact check, even when real, the pictures of the falls that circulated on social media shortly after the 2026 midterms were unrelated to the elections' outcome (archived here).
According to the official Eiffel Tower website (archived here), it turned blue at least three times: in 2006, 2008 and 2022. But on all occasions, the choice of the color was unrelated to the American Democratic Party: for example, blue represented the color of the European Union (archived here). As of Nov. 6, 2026, the Tower's account on Instagram (archived here), Facebook (archived here) and X (archived here) did not show any recent images of it being lit blue.
The Colosseum was illuminated blue at least once, in 2007 (archived here and here). As of this writing, the news section of its website did not display any recent announcements (archived here) concerning the illumination of the historical site; neither did the Events section (archived here). A search for the word "blue" across the Colosseum website (archived here) did not return results confirming that the monument was lit blue to celebrate 2026 Democratic wins. The monument's pages on Instagram (archived here), Facebook (archived here) or X (archived here) did not show photographs of the site turning blue at night.
A search for the keywords seen here (archived here) on Google News did not return news reports about the Colosseum or the Eiffel Tower lit in blue for Democratic gains.
Online AI detector Pangram showed that the particular composite image reviewed in this fact check was very likely to contain AI:
(Image source: Pangram.)
Lead Stories tested pictures of the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum separately.
Hive Moderation, Sightengine and AI or Not concluded that the image of the iconic Parisian sight turning blue was not real (click to view larger):
(Image sources: Hive Moderation, Sightengine, AI or Not; collage by Lead Stories.)
One more tool, SynthID Detector (archived here), determined that the image of the Eiffel Tower was "made or edited with OpenAI" and detected SynthID, an invisible watermark (archived here) showing the presence of generative AI:
(Image source: SynthID.)
The same set of AI detectors reached the same conclusion about the picture of the Colosseum:
(Image sources: Hive Moderation, Sightengine, AI or Not; collage by Lead Stories.)
SynthID also showed the presence of the invisible watermark associated with "Google AI":
(Image source: SynthID.)
