Over the past two days, a photograph purportedly showing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, 51, has circulated on the internet, depicting him with a swollen face and closed eyes while imprisoned in Britain.
The image portrays Assange sitting in a tiled room, appearing exhausted and wearing a bib stained with leftover food.
The photo received swift and strong reactions, with many users expressing dismay over Assange's alleged conditions, including journalists and politicians. Individual tweets related to the photo garnered over three million views.
One notable aspect of the image is the watermark indicating it is the property of someone known as "The Errant Friend" or "E" on the internet. This individual previously created a similar AI-generated photo of Assange two weeks ago.
The account has also shared artificially generated images of former U.S. President Donald Trump (76), which Trump himself has distributed on his social media account.
Some users have raised concerns about the possibility of the photo being a result of artificial intelligence manipulation, noting abnormalities in the image. Tools designed to identify AI-generated content provide clear indications that the photo is fake.
When asked by BILD, Julian Assange's wife Stella (40), a Swedish-Spanish lawyer, confirmed that the photo is a fake created using AI. France's largest TV station, TF1, has also classified the photo as fraudulent.
