"Dressed in a Mascot Costume and Fanning the Flames"... The Identity of the 'Pink Panther' at French Protests

Images of the Pink Panther smashing surveillance cameras and carrying a rifle spread on social media
BBC Verify confirms they were AI-generated; original posts should be labeled

Photos showing the Pink Panther appearing at a protest in France, smashing surveillance cameras and even carrying a rifle, spread rapidly on social media. However, they were confirmed to be AI-generated images, not photos taken at an actual protest.

A video shows a person wearing a Pink Panther costume dancing on top of a police car at a protest in France. Screenshot from an online community.

Recently, images of a person dressed in a pink Pink Panther costume appearing at various locations during protests in France were shared one after another on social media. Some photos showed the character damaging surveillance cameras, standing in front of riot police, or holding a rifle.

Set against backdrops reminiscent of actual protests in France and police deployments, the images quickly went viral, recording millions of views as a familiar cartoon character appeared in the scenes.

AI-generated videos regularly uploaded by the account operator. Instagram screenshot @aliframez

The BBC's fact-checking team, BBC Verify, found that the photos were AI-generated, rather than taken at actual protests. The source of the images was identified as the Instagram account @aliframez. The account creates and posts AI-generated images featuring famous pop culture characters, including the Pink Panther, Homer Simpson and the Teletubbies, in scenes of riots or protests.

The account operator told BBC Verify that the images were "created as part of an art project" and that they "were not intended to deceive the public or to be circulated as if they depicted actual protests." The original posts reportedly also included labels indicating that the content was AI-generated.

BBC Verify used Google's AI image identification tool, SynthID Detector, to analyze digital watermarks embedded in the images and traced the original account through reverse image searches. It confirmed that the Pink Panther photos had been created using AI.

A video of the Pink Panther being taken away by police. This, too, was confirmed to be AI-generated. Screenshot from social media.

Why the Pink Panther in particular? The Pink Panther film series is well known as a comedy featuring French police inspector Jacques Clouseau. The combination of the bumbling but persistent police character and the Pink Panther's playful, unpredictable image may have turned scenes of the character confronting French police or roaming protest sites into a meme. However, it has not been confirmed whether the creator chose the Pink Panther with these cinematic associations in mind.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that participants dressed as fictional characters also appeared at actual protests in France. BBC Verify reported that it had confirmed cases in which participants dressed as other characters, including Captain America and Superman, were captured at recent protests in France. This has raised concerns that users may find it harder to distinguish fact from fiction when AI-generated images circulate alongside photos or videos of actual protests.

Experts pointed out that even when an original post is labeled "AI-generated," that information can disappear as the image is reposted or shared without context. They warned that AI-generated images tied to real events may be more likely to be mistaken for misinformation if they spread rapidly.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.