At the turn of March and April 2025, several images allegedly taken during the rallies that began after the detention of the mayor of Istanbul were encouraged on the Web. They captured people in costumes of famous characters in pop culture. We checked the authenticity of these images.
One of the alleged photographs shows running people dressed as Spider-Man, Joker and Pikachu with the flag of Turkey in his hand. Behind them, police officers with shields are noticeable, as well as a person in Batman's costume, standing on the roof of a car with a miletic. “The rallies in Turkey look like a crossover that we did not expect, but which we need,” the public post says Marvel / DC: Geek Movies On VKontakte (100,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). Similar publications appeared in other communities, among which Mycomics | Marvel (118,000 views), "Universe Marvel / DC"(18,000) and"Universe Marvel | DC"(17,000). The picture was widely dispersed and outside the ruin - For example, it was published on the social network X English -speaking blogger Jan Miles Chong (more than 5 million views).
In the Russian -speaking Telegram, two other images were also encouraged: one of them shows how a man in the image of a Pikachu flees from the police, and his detention is captured on the second. “In Turkey, Batman appeared at a rally against Erdogan, and earlier Pikachu was hiding from the police on protest,” the signature for the selection of photos and videos published in the channel, allegedly shot during demonstrations, saidLive broadcast"(779,000 views). Similar notes came out in Telegram channels "Rhymes and Panchi"(151,000 views), Voblya (144,000), "Notepad Russia 18+"(53,000),"From the scene"(51,000) and others. Similar publications are found at Turkish, French, Spanish, Greek and other languages.
Mass protests in Turkey Started March 19, 2025, after detention And the subsequent arrest of the mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu. He was accused of corruption and assistance to terrorist organizations, in total, about 100 people were taken into custody in the framework of the investigation. The politician was considered the main opponent of the current president of the country, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his most likely opponent in the next election of the head of state. Despite the ban of the demonstrations, protesters went to the streets of Istanbul and other cities, some of them Entered In clashes with the police, which used special tools to disperse rallies. Despite the requirements of the demonstrators, Imamoglu Removed From the post on March 23. By data The BBC, about 2000 protesters, including several journalists, were detained in the incomplete two weeks of rallies.
A real Internet show was a participant in the demonstrations in Antalya, dressed in a Pokemon costume costume. Local media Published Photos and videos with this person, many of whom were made by the photojournalist Ismail Kocheroglu. One of the notes captures how a Pikachu, along with the crowd, runs away from the police.
The Turkish Pikachu, who became one of the symbols of protest, gave interview German magazine Der Spiegel. From there it became known that Hassan Tashkan was hiding under the costume, he is 21 years old and he has been leading a rather popular blog about fitness (more than 130,000 subscribers in Instagram). According to the man, he dressed up in a Pikachu, as he considers Pokemon to be sweet and popular. During the rally blogger I wanted to Only laugh people and defuse the situation, but did not expect that such a stir would cause his appearance. Tashkan also stated that he initially decided not to participate in protests: “I do not follow politics and I was never interested in it.”
On the Tashkan page there are a lot of photos and videos where he is dressed in a Pikachu suit, but, as it turned out, far from all the pictures and videos distributed on the network and supposedly captured a blogger are genuine.
Photo -command
With the help of a reverse search for the image of “verified”, the source of the viral picture with a pikachu, Batman, Joker and Spider-Man found. On March 27, this photo was published by Eren Faslioglu (@erenfazlioglutr), his tweet I scored more than 6 million views. Moreover, in the initial image there was a worship of the author, but in the posts we have analyzed, it was cut.
Faslioglu posted a picture without any signatures, but a description of his profile Glassed: “Computer specialist and artificial intelligence. All content was created using AI. ” Moreover, after a few hours he left Remember To the original post, writing in Turkish and in English: “I believe that each person has an average level of intelligence. Nevertheless, let me explain to me: on the original frames that were covered by the media in Turkey, only a running pick -up was shown. This version is generated using AI and includes other characters for a comic effect. ”
It is noteworthy that the person in the outfit of Batman is really Participated In protests, but his suit was different from the version created by the neural network. In addition, he attended a rally in Istanbul, and not in Antalya, where he “protested” Picachu. But there is a joint photo of a man in a suit of Pokemon with a demonstrator in a mask of Spider-Man, he was published on Instagram photojournalist Kocheroglu.
On the Fasliooglu page there are several more similar works generated by a neural network. Other comic book characters appeared on some of them: a cat, a holk and an iron man.
It was possible to determine the origin of the viral picture without searching for the source. For example, you can pay attention to some artifacts that give out the work of neural networks. For example, on the shield of one of the police officers instead of the word Polis (“police”), smeared letters are noticeable, and in the background, a strange -shaped lamp is visible. Finally, the Pokemon costume with genuine videos differs from the presented in this photo. "Verified" also analyzed the image using the AI-detector from the company HIVE. He appreciated the likelihood that the picture created a neural network at 98.2%.
Escape and detention of Pokemon
How I found out Turkish factory -based TEYIT project, a photo with a run -in Pokemon, behind which vodomotyes work for the first time Published User X with username @bylony. Its tweet dates from March 27 and does not contain any clarifying signatures, while in the image there is his worship, which was cut into viral posts. FACHECHERS FROM TEYIT and their Greek colleagues from Ellinika Hoaxes Checked A picture with the help of different AI detectors, and they all indicated that with a high probability the image was generated by a neural network. A similar result She shared Emmanuel Saliba, company expert Getreal Labswho is engaged in protection against manipulations using artificial intelligence. In addition, the publication is 404 Media Made The screenshot of the Instagram-storosis of the photographer Kocheroglu, which published a viral picture with the signature "Remaster from AI".
The Turkish factor drew attention to some distortions. For example, in the right side of the picture on the form of a policeman and on a police car, smeared letters are again noticeable instead of the word Polis. In addition, the lampposts and in this case differ in form from those that were captured on genuine materials with a person in a Pokemon costume.
As for the picture with the Turkish Pikachu in handcuffs, it was “verified” by its original source. However, we can confidently say that this photo is a fake. Firstly, not a single authoritative media talked about the detention of a person in Turkey in a Pokemon costume, and Tashkan himself did not report this. Secondly, when a reverse search for the image in the Google Lens service, it is indicated that this picture was created by artificial intelligence from Google. We also checked the photo using several AI detectors (WAS it AI, tools from Sightengine And HIVE) - All of them also indicated the work of the neural network. Finally, artifacts typical of AI are again striking. So, the word POLIS on the shield is written inaudibly, on one of the flags of Turkey there are three stars instead of one, and the growth doll does not have a hole in the mouth of Pokemon, through which a person located inside could see the environment surrounding it.
Thus, all three disassembled photos turned out to be fakes created with the help of neural networks. Although the very news that a person in Turkish protests took part in a Pikachu suit is true, some users of the network take AI-images for real ones and distribute them, and not numerous genuine photos and videos.
*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, is prohibited by an extremist organization, its activities and symbolism in Russia.
Photo on the cover: @urenfazlioglutr (x) / social networks
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