On April 29, 2024, an X account posted a vintage, black-and-white photo of two men and two children standing in front of a house alongside a fantastical creature that appeared to be some sort of demon and claimed the humans were members of the Rothschild family.
(@iluminatibot / X)
One X user wanted to know if the picture had been manipulated, while others replied to the post asking whether the image was real.
Similar posts appeared on Facebook, including one by an account with the same name as the X user, whose tweet had amassed more than 8 million views at the time of this writing.
However, details in the photo revealed it was a AI generated. The facial features of the two children — such as the ears, eyes, noses and mouths — were visibly distorted, along with the collars of the two men, which is why we rated this photo and claim "Fake."
The earliest iteration of the picture Snopes found was posted by a Tumblr account on May 29, 2023, alongside other clearly AI-generated images. We were unable to confirm whether the Tumblr account posted the original version of the photo, but we contacted the account and several other social media accounts who posted some of the earliest versions of the image on online to ask where they sourced it from.
Other social media users had previously used the same image to satirize numerous families and groups whom they jokingly claimed it depicted, such as the British royal family (on two occasions), the Trump family, British Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg's family, American far-right activist Laura Loomer's family, and the right-wing faction of the British Conservative Party, Popular Conservatism.
The Rothschilds, best known as a European banking dynasty stretching back two centuries, are frequently targeted by misinformation, and antisemitic conspiracy theories concerning them — such as linking them to the Illuminati, the New World Order, and other shadowy groups that supposedly influence world governments — date back to the 18th century. They have also been blamed for starting wars for personal gain, funding the Holocaust, and assassinating U.S. presidents.
Snopes has previously addressed false claims about the family's wealth, their alleged desire for a third world war, and numerous other subjects.