What was claimed
Facebook pages show genuine images and footage from student protests against Pauline Hanson.
Our verdict
False. The images and footage are AI-generated.
AAP FACTCHECK - AI-generated images and videos are being used to exaggerate the size of crowds at recent student protests against Pauline Hanson.
Thousands of high school and university students walked out of class to protest against the One Nation leader on August 13.
Numerous genuine images have been widely shared of the demonstrations which took place in cities including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
However, several Facebook pages have used AI to give a misleading impression of the events.
One page, called Australian Pride, posted an image supposedly featuring a city street packed with students protesting against Senator Hanson.
"'GO TO HELL': THOUSANDS RALLY AGAINST PAULINE HANSON," the text overlay reads.
However, the image appears to be AI-generated. Google's SynthID tool detected an invisible watermark indicating that part of the image was edited or generated with Google AI.
There are also several visual signs of AI-generation, including garbled text on protest banners and blurred faces in the crowd.
The image appears to show more people than attended the city protests.
Another page, called Australian Land, posted a video appearing to show a reporter conducting a 'vox pop' street interview with a student protester.
"How can we move forward when aspiring leaders keep spreading hate?" the student protester says.
The video also shows signs of AI-generation. At the one-second mark, a banner held by a student on the left side of the video contains garbled text, reading: "STUDENTS AGAST racism HHANSON."
The student protester being interviewed is holding a stack of papers at the beginning of the video, but they disappear a second later.
Australian Land has published dozens of similar fake vox pop-style videos purporting to show Australians commenting on social issues.
Many feature AI-generated people with strikingly similar faces, but different clothing and hairstyles.
Facebook's page transparency details reveal Australian Land and Australian Pride are operated by users in Sri Lanka.
A post by a page called 'Need to Know - NTK News' also shows a large crowd of students at a protest, but again it's AI-generated.
OpenAI's verification tool detected metadata indicating the image was generated using OpenAI tools.
There are also visual inconsistencies indicating the image has been digitally altered.
The same dark-haired student wearing glasses appears multiple times throughout the crowd.
A post by a page called 'Aussie Pulse 360' features an image purporting to show students protesting outside Parliament House in Canberra.
However, a Facebook post promoting the rally shows student demonstrations in Canberra took place at the Australian National University (ANU) campus, not outside Parliament House.
Students gathered at the ANU’s Kambri campus before marching through nearby city streets, according to Facebook posts from protest organisers.
Google's SynthID tool detected the image had been generated or edited using Google AI.
The image also contains visual errors, including garbled text on protest banners and unnaturally smooth faces in the crowd.
AAP FactCheck previously debunked AI-generated social media videos purporting to show anti-immigration rallies.
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