Photoshopped image falsely shared as genuine 'Tesla Cybertruck taxi in Hong Kong'

"Wow! Tesla Cybertruck be taxi (sic) in Hong Kong," read the caption in a Facebook post shared on August 26, 2024. 

The image shows what appears to be a Tesla Cybertruck operating as a Hong Kong taxi. 

Image

Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on August 27, 2024

The same image was also passed off as genuine in posts here, here and here. 

Some users left comments indicating they believed the image showed a real Tesla Cybertruck taxi.

"That's a 700,000-dollar taxi," read one comment. 

"Good luck getting into public parking spaces," said another.

Photoshopped image

But reverse image searches on Google found the first instance of the image shared on Instagram by a user with the handle "Surrealhk" on July 18, 2024, months before the image began recirculating in false posts (archived link).

The user -- Tommy Fung -- described himself in his bio as a "digital creator".

He has shared other similarly edited photos of Hong Kong taxis here, here and here (archived links here, here and here). 

Fung told AFP he was aware that his artwork had been reshared in a misleading context online. 

"Anyone that goes to see my original post will find the caption, the hashtags and a statement indicating this is a Photoshop artwork", he said.

Fung clarified in part of the original post's caption that "the artwork shared in this post was created using Photoshop software solely for artistic purposes. It is not intended to depict real events or news" (archived link). 

The caption also read: "After the taxi fare increase, new cars and better service?" -- referring to the Hong Kong Transport Department's July announcement about higher taxi fares (archived link).

AFP has highlighted several inconsistencies in the geolocation of the edited photo and the taxi's sticker below:

Image

Screenshot comparison of the Surrealhk post (top left), Google Maps' street view (top right) and Hong Kong taxi photo by local media (bottom) (Celine SEO)

The text "Surrealhk" was added to the historic Woo Cheong Tea House building in the background (archived link).

The sticker on the taxi door -- which would normally read "Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) car" -- has been edited to include traditional Chinese characters pronounced similar to "Tesla electric taxi" (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked digitally altered photos here.