Summary
On April 25, 2026, social media posts falsely claimed that Saudi authorities had banned photography and videography at holy sites during the annual hajj pilgrimage. These posts were accompanied by an AI-generated image purportedly showing a sign about the ban. The image contained inconsistencies, including a watermark from Google’s Gemini AI tool and text written in Urdu rather than Arabic, the official language of Saudi Arabia. While Saudi authorities have encouraged pilgrims to be considerate of fellow worshippers, they have not implemented a ban on photo or video taking at the Grand Mosque or other holy sites.