Waving Union Jacks, tens of thousands of supporters of far-right activist Tommy Robinson descended on London’s streets last Saturday for a rally known as “Unite The Kingdom.” Addressing the crowd, Robinson said “we are here in our millions”, and his supporters followed suit online, sharing images of enormous rallies. In reality, London’s Metropolitan Police believe 60,000 demonstrators attended, and several of the viral images online are either AI-generated or using old footage.
Multiple viral images of crowds carrying UK flags and signs were generated by artificial intelligence, showing either distorted faces, inconsistencies or possessing a digital watermark which confirmed its source. Users claimed they showed “British patriotism” and “millions” taking to the streets, believing that the images were real. Aerial footage of crowds from the previous ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally last September were also often shared online as if recent, falsely exaggerating the turnout. This included a post by Polish right-wing politician Dominic Tarczynski, who shared a video on his X account that was actually from 2025. Far-right and anti-immigration accounts often circulated these videos to inflate the crowd size. London’s Metropolitan Police estimated the turnout to have been at 60,000 people, less than it had expected and planned for. It’s also less than half of the turnout from the September 2025 ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march, which police estimated at around 150,000 people.
