17 June 2026
What was claimed
An image shows an Iranian footballer holding a pink bag on the pitch to pay tribute to 168 people killed in an attack on a school in Minab, Iran.
Our verdict
This image isn’t real and was made using AI. Iranian footballers have previously been photographed holding school bags in memory of the girls killed in an attack in February.
An image of an Iranian footballer holding up a pink backpack has been shared thousands of times online with claims it shows an on-pitch tribute to girls killed in an attack on a primary school in Minab, Iran in February this year.
There is genuine imagery from March showing members of Iran’s national football team holding school bags in memory of the 168 people killed in Minab, but the viral picture circulating on social media isn’t real and was made using artificial intelligence (AI).
The image contains a SynthID watermark that shows it was “generated with OpenAI tools” such as ChatGPT, the OpenAI API, or Codex.
Iran’s men's national team has played five games so far this year . Real photos of these matches don’t match the kit or scene depicted in the fake image.
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The fake picture was shared before Iran’s first World Cup match against New Zealand in Los Angeles. There were no reports of any players holding school bags at this match.
It’s important to rely on sources that are trustworthy and verifiable before sharing content which you see on social media. Our toolkit and guides on identifying AI-generated content have tips on how to do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content— here .
For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as altered because this image isn’t real and was made using artificial intelligence.
Related topics
Iran
Social media
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