FACT CHECK: Image That Appears To Show Janet Mills Being Arrested Is AI
An image featured in a video shared on Instagram claims to show Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills allegedly being arrested.
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Verdict: False
A content detection scan using the website “Hive Moderation” indicates the image is 99.8% likely to have been generated with artificial intelligence (AI). An AI expert denied the image’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.
Fact Check:
Mills compared President Donald Trump to French monarch Louis the XIV following their public clash over transgender athletes, according to the Boston Globe. Mills also said transgender athletes participating in girls’ sports is “worthy of debate,” the outlet reported, citing WMTW-Ch. 8.
The Instagram video, which has received over 700 likes as of writing, features an image claiming to show Mills allegedly being arrested. A pair of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents can be seen on either side of Mills, who appears to be handcuffed.
“If f–k [censorship added] around and find out was a person,” a set of text that appears above the image reads. “Governor of Maine arrested for defying Trumps [sic] law,” a second set of text follows.
The claim is false. Check Your Fact performed a content detection scan using the website “Hive Moderation,” and the results indicate the image is 99.8% likely to have been AI-generated. According to the results of the same scan, Midjourney was probably the program used to create the image.
Screenshot captured via HiveModeration
Likewise, Mills does not appear to have issued a press release or a social media statement responding to the claim. Trump also has not publicly commented on the claim.
In addition, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports suggesting Mills had recently been arrested. Actually, the opposite is true. On March 5, Logically Facts debunked the claim, reporting it was AI-generated.
Furthermore, Dr. Walter Scheirer, an AI expert at the University of Notre Dame, denied the image’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.
“This is an image that has been generated using an AI image synthesis tool. It is not photorealistic, and instead resembles a cartoon. It contains numerous artifacts that would not be present in a real photo, including ‘FBI’ being misspelled on the uniform of one of the agents, and the other agent being depicted handcuffed for no apparent reason,” Scheirer said.
Mills sparred with Trump during a recent meeting of governors at the White House, according to The Associated Press. Trump threatened to deny federal funding to Maine after Mills suggested she would not comply with an executive order that bans transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports, the outlet reported. (RELATED: Did Maine Gov. Janet Mills Say Her State Will Stop Paying Federal Taxes?)
Check Your Fact has also contacted Mills’ office for comment.
