Fact Check: Viral Picture Of McDonald’s Beef-Themed Logo Is Fake, Has Been Generated Using AI

New Delhi (Vishvas News): A picture has gone viral on social media with the false claim that McDonald’s has released a new logo based on the theme of beef. Sharing this image, several social media users have called for a boycott of McDonald’s.

Vishvas News found this claim to be false in its investigation. McDonald’s has not made any changes in its existing logo and the picture going viral with this claim has actually been created with the help of an AI tool.

What Is Going Viral?

Social media user ‘Baba Aramdev’ shared the viral picture (archive link) and wrote, “New logo of McDonald’s in America.* #BoycottMacdonald.” After all, what compulsion does anyone have to consume the food produced at this cow slaughtering company?

Several social media users shared the viral post. The post was shared on Vishvas News’ WhatsApp tipline number seeking the truth behind it.

Investigation

With the use of Google Reverse Image Search, this picture was found on the Facebook page of ‘PETA 洲善待动物给组’, and was shared on December 15.

The photo is accompanied by a description in Mandarin, which roughly translates to, “If only McDonald’s trademark actually reflected the truth!” The post gave image credit to ‘Itzhak Garbuz’. Searching with this keyword, we found a post shared by PETA on X (formerly Twitter) on December 11.

The photo has also been shared on Facebook with the caption, “If only McDonald’s marketing was right.” ‘Itzhak Garbuz’ has also been tagged in this post. On searching, we found a Facebook profile by the name of ‘Itzhak Garbuz’, where he shared this picture on September 19 and said that it was created with the help of an AI tool. He said that the picture has been created with the help of the command ‘Stable diffusion a1111 + ControlNet’.

From our investigation so far, it is clear that McDonald’s logo going viral has been created with the help of AI to convey a specific message.

After this, we checked the picture with the help of a tool created to detect the use of AI. In the investigation, the probability of this picture being made with the help of AI was found to be 99.9 per cent.

Regarding the viral picture, we contacted Abhijeet Parashar, an expert working on AI and machine learning. He confirmed that these pictures were made with the help of AI tools.

In the last phase of investigation, we have checked McDonald’s website. According to the information given on the website, there has been no change in McDonald’s wordmark and logo since 2019. Its actual trademark can be seen here.

Nearly 30,000 people follow the Facebook page of the user who shared the viral picture with the fake claim. Other fact check reports related to AI can be read here.