Viral image of Julian Assange in prison is AI generated

An image of an exhausted man is going viral with the claim it shows Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in prison.

A Twitter user shared the image claiming it shows the dead Julian Assange in a London prison.

The official handle of the Russian Embassy in Kenya also tweeted the image. It claimed that the man is Assange. It said he is in jail because he had released a video of United States Forces firing on Iraqi civilians 13 years ago.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the image is not real and had been created using the AI tool 'MidJourney’.

On performing a reverse image search, we found the image tweeted on 30 March by a user named ‘The Errant Friend.’ In the caption, the user has asked for the immediate release of Assange.

The bio section of the account reads, “Free Assange.” On skimming through the account, we found another AI-generated image of Assange posted on March 17. We noticed the viral one and this image carries the watermark—Photo property of "E".

We also came across a report by the German news outlet 'Bild' of 2 April 2023. It said the photo purporting to show imprisoned Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is produced by AI. It also mentioned that the creator of the photo calls himself "E." The Errant Friend talking to Bild has admitted that he created the photo using the AI tool MidJourney. He also said that the intention behind creating the image is to document Assange suffering in prison.

We also came across the Telegram Channel of the user where he clarified that the photo of Assange was created by him using AI.

Hence, we conclude that the viral image of Julian Assange is not real and was created using the AI tool MidJourney.

About Julian Assange

Wikileaks co-founder is currently in London's Belmarsh prison. He is fighting a US attempt to extradite him, where he is charged with espionage and the publication of hundreds of thousands of secret documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.