Social media posts have shared images of US President Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama dressed in pink suits to celebrate the recent release of the "Barbie" movie. But the photos were fabricated, as indicated by the person who first shared them as a joke; an animation expert also told AFP the images were made by artificial intelligence.
"The Trashy Biden Family acknowledges Barbie, but not the Sound of Freedom," says a post published on Twitter -- which is being rebranded as 'X' -- on July 24, 2023, sharing an image of Biden in a pink suit, at the wheel of a pink car.
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"In a new photo, Obama and Joe Biden trolling Republican Christian fundamentalists," a post published by another user on the same day claims, sharing an image of Biden and Obama, side by side, in matching pink suits.
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The posts highlight complaints by conservatives that the Hollywood blockbuster is "woke," and that not enough attention was paid to the controversial film "Sound of Freedom" on human trafficking.
But the images with the pink suits are fake. Through a keyword search, AFP found that the images were first shared by Chris Jackson, Tennessee's Lawrence County Election Commissioner -- a Democrat.
"In light of the Right's freak out about the @Barbie movie, @POTUS @JoeBiden should change up his wardrobe a little this week," Jackson said in a July 23 thread.
He first posted an image of Biden in a pink suit sitting on a matching pink couch. "I just had to do another," Jackson then said, suggesting he created the images, and posting the second image of Biden at the wheel of a pink car. "Okay. One final one," he concluded, sharing the image of Obama and Biden, identical to the ones found in the more recent posts shared on the platform.
AFP found no iteration of the images preceding Jackson's posts.
'Hyper smooth' details
Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie, which premiered on July 21, had the biggest box office debut of the year during which it raked in $155 million in North America. It also triggered some disinformation."Barack and Joe trolling Republicans — love it!!," Chairman of the "Democratic Coalition Against Trump," Jon Cooper posted on July 23, sharing the image of the pink-clad presidents.
Cooper added a day later that "although I think virtually everyone realizes this image was photoshopped (duh!), I want to make clear that President Biden and President Obama didn't REALLY take time out of their packed schedules to wear pink suits for a Barbie promo."
None of the images are appear in credible media sources, nor are they found on The White House's website or its Flickr account.
The images also all carry signs of digital manipulation.
"These are all fake," Del Walker, a senior character artist for the video game developer Naughty Dog, told AFP on July 25.
"I can tell by the hyper-smooth materials and surfaces," he said.
Other noticeable signs of digital alteration include the pin on Biden's suit, for example, which displays indistinctive lines and an odd shape and color. President Biden usually wears a US flag pin on his jacket.
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But "if someone takes the time to fix AI errors digitally, it can be super difficult to discern if something is not AI," Walker warned.
AFP has debunked other AI-generated visuals, including here and here.
