Summary
An AI-generated image depicting Australian far-right senator Pauline Hanson working in a fish-and-chip shop in the late 1980s circulated on social media platforms like Facebook and X. The image, which showed Hanson in an apron serving customers with a long line of people waiting, was shared by supporters who praised her work ethic and claimed it increased her party’s popularity. However, the image was debunked as a fabrication because it contained visual artifacts such as an Australian flag with seven stars instead of six, garbled text on a sign, and a plate of raw fish appearing to emerge from a display case. Additionally, the image carried an invisible watermark identifying it as created using OpenAI tools, and Australian media confirmed the shop’s historical name was Marsden’s Seafood, not the name shown in the image.