Image of Epstein with Mark Zuckerberg, LinkedIn co-founder is AI-generated
- Published on February 12, 2026 at 10:00
- 3 min read
- By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong
After the US government released its latest tranche of files on Jeffrey Epstein, an AI-generated image of the convicted sex offender dining with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman circulated on social media. The new cache of documents mentions Epstein dined with Zuckerberg and Hoffman, but an analysis found visual errors in the circulating picture, which was originally posted on a parody account.
"Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg, in the name of 'standards' and 'morality', deleted all content opposing the Communist Party and all content revealing information about the COVID-19 vaccine," reads the simplified Chinese caption of an image shared on X on February 6, 2026.
"And we can see his 'morality' reflected in Jeffrey Epstein."
The post, viewed more than 10,000 times, appears to show the CEO of Facebook's parent company Meta eating sushi with a woman in his lap. He is flanked by Epstein and LinkedIn co-founder Hoffman.
Similar posts showed up on Weibo, Sina and Threads after the US Justice Department released more than three million pages from files related to its investigation into Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls (archived link).
The newly released files included more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
Earlier releases revealed Epstein's connections with prominent business leaders, celebrities, academics, and politicians -- among them US President Donald Trump and former leader Bill Clinton.
The mere mention of someone's name in the Epstein files does not, in itself, imply any wrongdoing by that person.
However, the documents made public show at the very least connections between Epstein or his circle and certain public figures who have often downplayed -- or even denied -- the existence of such ties.
AI-generated visual
The batch of files released in January 2026 includes references to Epstein dining with Zuckerberg and Hoffman.
A photo of Zuckerberg at a dinner can be found in an email Epstein sent to himself on August 3, 2015 (archived link).
Epstein is not visible in the picture unlike the circulating image.
In a separate email several days after, Epstein wrote he "had dinner with zuckerburg" and "hoffman" and described the event as "wild".
A representative for Zuckerberg said he did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner, according to a report from NBC News (archived link).
Hoffman wrote on X on February 4: "I only knew Jeffrey Epstein because of a fundraising relationship with MIT, which I very much regret" (archived link).
The image circulating on social media is AI-generated.
A faint "DFF" watermark is visible on the image, and a subsequent keyword search on Google shows it was posted on an X account bearing the same name (archived link).
The account is labelled as a "parody account" and regularly posts AI-generated visuals of celebrities. Comments on the image also pointed out that it was made using AI.
An analysis by Google's SynthID detector, a tool designed to identify AI-generated content, said with a "very high" degree of confidence that the image was created using the company's AI tools (archived link).
Moreover, the image contains visual errors indicative of AI content. For example, Hoffman's ears in the falsely shared image do not match photos of the entrepreneur.
US fact-checking organisation Lead Stories earlier debunked the AI-generated image (archived link).
AFP has previously fact-checked other false claims related to the Epstein files.
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