Aerial view of South Korean election protests is AI-generated
- Published on June 29, 2026 at 06:11
- 2 min read
- By Hawon Jung, AFP South Korea
Ballot paper shortages during South Korea's June 3 regional elections sparked massive protests in Seoul, but an image circulating on social media purportedly showing huge crowds at a vote-counting centre is AI-generated. The image differs from genuine photos of crowds surrounding the vote-counting centre at a sports stadium in the South Korean capital, and was flagged as made with OpenAI tools.
The image, which appears to show a night-time aerial view of a massive crowd encircling a stadium, was shared on Threads on June 7, 2026.
The crowd seems to have unfurled several large South Korean flags, and the main entrance of the stadium has a sign reading "Olympic Handball Gymnasium".
"June 6, 2026, Jamsil democratisation movement drone shot. This is a real democratisation movement," says its Korean-language caption, referring to the neighbourhood where protests over unprecedented ballot shortages that disrupted local elections on June 3 have taken place.
Thousands of people have joined protests demanding a rerun of the local elections -- the first nationwide polls since President Lee Jae Myung succeeded conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted over his brief martial law declaration in late 2024 (archived link).
Lee's ruling liberal Democratic Party won most races but failed to flip the key Seoul mayoral race.
The image was also shared in similar Instagram, Facebook and X posts in multiple languages, often with unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
"Haven't seen a crowd like this since the 2002 World Cup!" read a comment on one of the posts, while another said: "People are so angry that everyone has gathered at Jamsil!"
The protest in Jamsil, southern Seoul, drew a mix of demonstrators condemning alleged mismanagement by the election authorities and far-right activists and politicians promoting widely debunked claims of election fraud (archived link).
Some protestors falsely accused police officers dispatched there of being Chinese, echoing the Chinese infiltration conspiracy theories widespread among the country's far-right.
The circulating image, however, is AI-generated.
The stadium around which the protests have been taking place -- currently called "ticketLINK Live Arena" -- is round, not rectangular as depicted in the image spreading on social media (archived here and here).
Structural details -- including the sign above the stadium's main entrance -- as well as the scenes of surrounding areas also differ from the actual stadium (archived here and here). The circulating image depicts multiple floodlights around the stadium, but no such lights exist in those positions.
An aerial photo of the same protest site published by a local newspaper also differs from the falsely shared image (archived link).
OpenAI's image verification tool determined the content was "generated using OpenAI tools".
AFP has previously debunked other AI-generated images misrepresented as genuine footage of large gatherings and protests.
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