Image of a person dressed as Pikachu in Turkey protests is AI-generated

Thousands have taken to the streets in Turkey to protest Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest. 

Social media users shared an image of one protester dressed as a character known for its bright yellow color and electrifying abilities: Pikachu.

“A Turkish person dressed up as Pikachu to resist police violence on the 8th day of the Turkish uprising,” read a March 27 Threads post sharing the image.

(Screenshot from Threads)

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There was authentic footage of a person dressed as Pikachu running away during the protests, but this image of Pikachu surrounded by police in Turkey is AI-generated. The technology news site 404 Media reported the authentic video was taken in Antalya, Turkey, by Ismail Koçeroğlu, a photojournalist at Akdeniz University.

GetReal Labs, a cybersecurity and digital forensics company, found that the image is inauthentic. In a statement, Chief Investigative Officer Emmanuelle Saliba said, “All three of our models trained to detect AI-generated images flagged the image as synthetic.”

Saliba also pointed out that a police van in the image had distorted text, if spelled correctly in Turkish, it should read “POLIS.”

PolitiFact did not find anything to support the image’s authenticity — we found no photographer’s credit nor was it published by any credible publication.

We rate this AI-generated image of a protester in Turkey dressed as Pikachu as False.

By

Loreben Tuquero

Staff writer

March 28, 2025

Truth-o-meter Ruling

False

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

• An image of a person dressed as Pikachu surrounded by police is AI-generated, according to a digital forensics company.

Statement

Image shows a “person dressed up as Pikachu to resist police violence” in Turkey.

Context

social media posts

Speaker/Target

Speaker: Social Media

Statement Date

March 27, 2025