When I saw that picture on AP by photographer Thibault Camus (who photographed several other people who were pushed outside), I knew, it was real because of the renowned *source*. (Therefore I never boost posts without clear sources.)
In this case, it was easy to find the source with inverse photo search.

The problem here was not that guy photographed by accident, it was the fake stories full of clichés about him coming up in social media. france24.com/en/france/2025102… 1/2

The Bright Side: Photo of well-dressed mystery man goes viral in wake of Louvre jewel heist

A photo of French police sealing off the Louvre after last weekend’s crown jewel heist has taken on a life of its own, after social media users took interest in an unidentified, well-dressed man caught in the foreground.

^{FRANCE 24}

Now here is the problem

Because #AI fakes have trained you about "too good to be true" scenes, you immediately distrust the picture above

*That* is the problem

Where before a picture was a picture, now, for everyone, there is the bias of distrust. We, buried in cynicism now, distrust first, and discard evidence *on the bias of 'too good to be true'*

Here is another picture from the same scene by the same photographer (Thibault Camus, a photographer for The Associated Press):

3/x

"someone else altered it"

"the lighting is too perfect"

"it's not #AI it's photoshop"

etc

maybe the picture is real?

🤷

To be honest, I don't care

The picture is a prop for my point here:

*It's not about whether or not the picture is real or fake, it's about how we distrust everything now*

Pointless insipid endless arguments about real v fake... what is that replacing?

On far more important issues in the world

And that can be manipulated

Meta-deception

Deception, about deception

4/x

There's many multiple layers here

A picture, concerning a heist with deception... if that picture's a deception. Based on a preconception about fictional masters of deception. And the implications of it all about how we are becoming victims of #AI deception. Or, more deeply- how our biases about being deceived by lies, deceives us from seeing the truth: boomeranging self-deception

🫨 🫨 🫨

😵‍💫 🥴 😵

5/5

@Ben Royce 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 I've seen this picture in Instagram captioned with "This is the detective in charge of the Louvre heist". My partner showed it to me and I said "This doesn't look too unlikely for someone in Paris to be dressed like this but it is unlikely this would be the detective. After looking at the comment of the post, bingo, nothing to do with the police but the picture seems authentic.

Not everybody has someone who's lived a few years in Paris to debunk such a blatant piece of misinformation to gather likes on a commercial social platform though.

@hypolite

and, correct me if i'm wrong, but these are people leaving the museum, which was closed when this picture was taken?

so i would guess, as if i were a detective, that this is an employee

if you work in an art museum, dapper historical dress does not seem at all out of line with your profession

@grumble209 @koteisaev
That's a really good way of putting it.

Perhaps the people most in touch with reality are those with the least amount of privilege 😞

This might explain a lot of problems in society.