Fake Photo Of A Protest Circulates On Social Media Using “Publika” Branding

About this record

This incident page is generated from structured reporting inputs and public sources. It is intended to support tracking and review, not to replace primary source verification.

Incident details

Incident ID: inc_2026_09_25_d485fdc1
Date source: llm_extracted_from_article_text
Country: Georgia
Platform: Social Media
Incident type: Manipulated Photo
Verification level: reported_but_unverified

Harm types

Misinformation Reputational Harm

Topics

Image Manipulation Authenticity Harm Visual Impersonation

Summary

On September 25, a Facebook user identified as Ramaz Margvelashvili published a social media card using the Publika logo that showed a protester holding a banner altered to read “666 days of protest. Lucifer is with us too!” The post accompanied a claim that participants had made banners supporting Lucifer; that inscription does not appear in Publika’s authentic photos documenting the protest.

Myth Detector found the circulated photo to be a visual manipulation: the banner text was changed from the authentic Publika image (which read in English, “I am from Georgia and my country is occupied by Russia”) and the manipulated image shows signs of AI-generated editing (font characteristics and text overlapping a protester’s finger). The Facebook account in question has previously circulated similarly fabricated social-media cards, and the article presents this as a verified alteration of the original photo.

Sources

Fake Photo Of A Protest Circulates On Social Media Using “Publika” Branding | Mythdetector.com

mythdetector.com · 2026-09-29 · Primary