Fact Check: AZ Truck Flag Parade Broke Record for Most Patriotic Display?

Claim:

A photo shows an Arizona truck flag parade breaking the record for the most patriotic display in history, with over 10,000 flags.

Rating:

Labeled Satire ( About this rating? )

Context:

The America's Last Line Of Defense Facebook page, which categorizes itself as only posting satirical and parodical content, posted the image. Further, a person using an AI tool created the completely fake image.

On June 18, 2024, the America's Last Line Of Defense (ALLOD) Facebook page posted a purported photo displaying the words, "Arizona Truck Flag Parade Breaks the Record for the Most Patriotic Display in History With More Than Ten Thousand Flags!" The text caption of the post read, "Good for you, Flagstaff!"

The author of the post added a comment with another purported picture of elderly men riding scooters while wearing patriotic clothing and displaying flags. The author wrote in the comment, "Wow! Amazing! Why don't pictures like this ever trend?"

However, these pictures did not display real-life events. The ALLOD Facebook page labels itself as a "satire" and "parody" account associated with more than one "entertainment website." The description of the Facebook page explicitly says its intention is to troll users with inauthentic content. That description reads, "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery. Nothing on this page is real."

Further, an unknown artificial-intelligence (AI) tool created the fake images of the supposed "truck flag parade" in Arizona and the elderly men on rascal scooters. One AI telltale sign was the illegible writing on the trucks' Ford logos and license plates, as well as the letters on the hats worn by the elderly men on scooters. The hats resembled those reading "Make America Great Again" that supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump often wear.

Reverse-image searches using both Google Images and TinEye found no further results for these same two photos. It's unclear if a person unaffiliated with America's Last Line Of Defense posted the images elsewhere prior to them appearing on the Facebook page.

The caption included with the comment asking why pictures like these don't trend played as a joke on the many Facebook posts appearing in 2024 showing AI images and asking, "Why don't pictures like this ever trend?" Such posts sometimes originate from users outside of the U.S. The posts often feature comments from users who believe in the authenticity of the images, even though someone used AI to create them.

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.

Sources:

"Search with an Image on Google - Computer." Google Search Help , https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1325808 .

TinEye Reverse Image Search . https://tineye.com/ .