Viral images of a rioter in a Pink Panther costume at the French protests were AI-generated
Images of the character looting, taunting, and being hosed with water cannons fooled some into thinking they were real.
2.41pm, 21 Oct 2026
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IMAGES APPEARING TO show the classic cartoon character the Pink Panther protesting against the police, or even engaging in violence, have been viewed millions of times online. However, these images are fake and generated by artificial intelligence platforms.
France was rocked on Saturday by rioting following weeks of student demonstrations over poor learning conditions in high schools.
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Amid the dramatic photos and videos, including real images of people dressed up as historical or fictional characters, appearances of a person dressed as the Pink Panther, often clashing with police forces or looting buildings, spread widely.
These AI-generated images have been viewed on social media millions of times.
Initially used in the opening sequence of The Pink Panther film series — named for a fictional jewel that is stolen in the first movie released in 1963 — the Pink Panther cartoon character was eventually spun off into its own shorts and TV shows.
And while the series was largely an American production, there were numerous French allusions through the character of Inspector Clouseau, who featured heavily throughout the movies and cartoons.
Although many of the posts depicting the Pink Panther clashing with French police were spread in the spirit of jest, numerous posts treated these as if they were genuine photographs.
“They demonstrate against billionaires and depraved austerity, with someone wearing a Pink Panther costume”, a 17 October post on Facebook reads. “Gimme more of this, PLEASE!”
That post has more than 2,400 shares.
“Bro literally pulled up to a full-blown riot in a full Pink Panther suit, throwing up double middle fingers while taking a direct hit from a water cannon, then jumped in the air with flames exploding behind him like an actual movie main character,” one Instagram post reads.
“If you ever feel useless, just remember someone woke up, saw tear gas and fire in the streets, and decided their best outfit choice was a giant pink cartoon mascot costume.”
That post has been reshared more than 4,400 times and liked more than 108,200 times since being posted on 18 October.
Scores of other posts on social media sites also imply that the images are from real events, often garnering hundreds of thousands of interactions.
The most popular images are, however, fake — generated by AI.
What appear to be the two most prominent examples have a SynthID attached to them.
One image shows of the Pink Panther defiantly holding high two middle fingers, while another, of the panther being hosed by a police water cannon was initially shared as an image, but has also been transformed into a short video clip using AI.
Perhaps the most popular picture spread online, showing an AI Pink Panther running from water cannons.
A SynthID is an invisible, digital watermark purposely added by some AI image generators so that their creations can be readily identified.
French media have identified earlier photos taken from around the world that appear to have been used as the basis for some of the AI-generated Pink Panther images.
The BBC also identified the source of one of the widely spread images — an Instagram account promoting AI art featuring fictional characters in gritty environments, like a Teletubby throwing a Molotov cocktail.
The person behind the account told the BBC that they had no intention of going viral due to the protests in France.
The Journal’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.
Viral images of a rioter in a Pink Panther costume at the French protests were AI-generated
IMAGES APPEARING TO show the classic cartoon character the Pink Panther protesting against the police, or even engaging in violence, have been viewed millions of times online. However, these images are fake and generated by artificial intelligence platforms.
France was rocked on Saturday by rioting following weeks of student demonstrations over poor learning conditions in high schools.
Amid the dramatic photos and videos, including real images of people dressed up as historical or fictional characters, appearances of a person dressed as the Pink Panther, often clashing with police forces or looting buildings, spread widely.
These AI-generated images have been viewed on social media millions of times.
Initially used in the opening sequence of The Pink Panther film series — named for a fictional jewel that is stolen in the first movie released in 1963 — the Pink Panther cartoon character was eventually spun off into its own shorts and TV shows.
And while the series was largely an American production, there were numerous French allusions through the character of Inspector Clouseau, who featured heavily throughout the movies and cartoons.
Although many of the posts depicting the Pink Panther clashing with French police were spread in the spirit of jest, numerous posts treated these as if they were genuine photographs.
“They demonstrate against billionaires and depraved austerity, with someone wearing a Pink Panther costume”, a 17 October post on Facebook reads. “Gimme more of this, PLEASE!”
That post has more than 2,400 shares.
“Bro literally pulled up to a full-blown riot in a full Pink Panther suit, throwing up double middle fingers while taking a direct hit from a water cannon, then jumped in the air with flames exploding behind him like an actual movie main character,” one Instagram post reads.
“If you ever feel useless, just remember someone woke up, saw tear gas and fire in the streets, and decided their best outfit choice was a giant pink cartoon mascot costume.”
That post has been reshared more than 4,400 times and liked more than 108,200 times since being posted on 18 October.
Scores of other posts on social media sites also imply that the images are from real events, often garnering hundreds of thousands of interactions.
The most popular images are, however, fake — generated by AI.
What appear to be the two most prominent examples have a SynthID attached to them.
One image shows of the Pink Panther defiantly holding high two middle fingers, while another, of the panther being hosed by a police water cannon was initially shared as an image, but has also been transformed into a short video clip using AI.
A SynthID is an invisible, digital watermark purposely added by some AI image generators so that their creations can be readily identified.
French media have identified earlier photos taken from around the world that appear to have been used as the basis for some of the AI-generated Pink Panther images.
The BBC also identified the source of one of the widely spread images — an Instagram account promoting AI art featuring fictional characters in gritty environments, like a Teletubby throwing a Molotov cocktail.
The person behind the account told the BBC that they had no intention of going viral due to the protests in France.
The Journal’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.
Artificial Intelligence debunked FactCheck France Misinformation pink panther Protests Social Media Politics International