The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse all released kill notifications to media outlets over the photo — released by Kensington Palace on Sunday — announcing that they would no longer be distributing the image.
The AP wrote, “it appears that the source has manipulated the image.” AFP cited an “editorial issue,” while Reuters said the photo was withdrawn after a “post-publication review.”
Following its release, social media was abuzz with sleuths questioning whether the photo was photoshopped or AI-generated. Many were focused on the cuff of Princess Charlotte’s pink cardigan, which appears to disappear in the photo.
Other users pointed out that Middleton was not wearing her wedding ring.
“no rings, kids all have their fingers crossed, weird blurring on charlotte’s cuffs, leaves on the trees despite it being early mach - i’m sorry but they’re just asking for us to go full katespiracy at this point,” one user on X wrote.
This article would’ve made some great science fiction 20 or so years ago.
It looks like they used AI to generate a photo and then clumsily tried to clean up the artifacts in photoshop.
Her knees also look a bit odd as well. I know they get cut off, but just the way they come to the end of the photo, I can’t imagine how else they continue like that. Unless they’re just at an odd angle, they look really weird.
Fwiw, this article has a version that’s less cropped…
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/royals/breaking-kate-middleton-shares-brand-32289601.amp
That same pic is in the article. You just have to scroll down and wait for the X-formerly-Twitter link to load.
The boys hand in that photo is from shitty ai. If that image’s source was from some official press outlet, they’re failing at their jobs.
Yeah I tried to get my fingers to do that, and it is not physically possible. I have flexible fingers.
Oh no! Anyway…
I looked at this and at first it looked fine, then I started seeing one uncanny after another. Wtf
Another distraction from the fact that capitalism is destroying the planet.
This is Business Insider’s front page right now including this story on the right (which it is also complaining about on the left). It’s really weird. Who exactly are they trying to appeal to, bankers who read the National Inquirer?
Perhaps the customers are CEOs of AI companies who might want to sell the royals better deepfake technology?
What a fucking tabloid mess.
But a really weird one, right?
Like you wouldn’t expect a tabloid to have a bunch of financial news and you wouldn’t expect a financial news source to have a bunch of tabloid stuff.
They’re a big company. They must have market research people. So what is the demographic they’ve found that makes this make sense?
BI has been doing tabloid-level journalism for a long time now, this doesn’t seem out of character for them at all. I’m sure their market research is entirely focused on maximizing engagement workout any concern about their reputation.
SO weird. You make a very good point… is there some tabloid reader/business person overlap somewhere? Like, a huge one that’s invisible to normal people?
My guess would be to launder otherwise unpalatable, right wing, conspiracy bullshit. Pretty clever. Financial news is usually pretty straightforward and somewhat predictable. If it’s on here, then maybe it’s not so outrageous, right?
What’s wrong with them shopping an image?
Like what if the image they wanted to share was an oil painting? Would that be wrong? Even if being a painting meant that it may not in fact be an accurate portrayal?
It has been photoshopped more than these agencies allow, and the reason people are interested is because there is a lot of speculation right now about where Kate Middleton actually is.
Kate Middleton is missing?
It was announced in Jan that she had surgery and was in hospital for a couple of weeks, and all of her public engagements were cancelled after that. She’s likely just recovering but the Royal’s silence on it is generating a lot of conspiracy theory fuel.
If I ever go missing, and photoshopped pictures of me start getting redacted, don’t listen to whoever is making claims on my behalf, fucking find me.
Don’t try to find this guy. He’s fine. He’s absolutely not being kept in a box in my basement.
Well that’s a relief
Can confirm. There’s nothing to see here.
That’s the conspiracy, yes.
I think more specifically they’re OK with edited images, but it must be declared that the image was edited. The assumption without that declaration is that the image is not edited, aside from composition changes perhaps (cropping, lighting, noise reduction etc).
If you look at the picture the photo shopping is fairly obvious, ignoring all the other nonsense being thrown in.
The guardian has a zoomed up view of the area and it’s pretty crude photoshopping. It’s more than blurring.
I get why news agencies are withdrawing it when they have policies against manipulation beyond anything simple like removing dust specks.
I have the strong feeling that this is purely sourced from more racism.
who?
She’s the younger sibling of Kate Upton
I’m just waiting to see what Kate Lowerton has to say about all this.
Quick, some one get Downton Abbey on the line.
Who?
Unimportant British royal who will eventually be queen if the stories have no weight
How are they so bad at this?!
It’s so bad it’s like they’re trying to inflate the attention on the royal family. I can’t think of what they would gain from this type of attention, though… Other than to keep them relevant in the minds of the public and media, in the cheapest way possible?
I think they were trying to shut down the rumour mill as to why Kate hasn’t been seen in months. Probably figured releasing a “photo” would do the trick. Little did they know there’s a worldwide network of researchers checking photos for just this kind of thing.
Palace staff f’ed up.
I can tell from some of the pixels, and from seeing quite a few shops in my time.
- Worldwide network of researchers
“Internet sleuths” have literally ruined people’s lives, so I try not to trust such “worldwide networks” of “researchers.”
https://abcnews.go.com/US/suffers-online-sleuths-turn-true-crime-entertainment/story?id=99869383
a worldwide network of researchers
It doesn’t take a photoshop expert to notice something off.
The tree in the background has leaves on it, in early march.Maybe it was in a pot and only recently transplanted to make the garden look nice.
“What do me mean what can we do? Just hire a photoshop export from fiver.com. Do I have to do everything for you?”
I hate when there are leaves on the tres in early mach.
Definitely won’t last through Mach 3
The sequel will be great though, Mach 4: Mach ado about nothing
I don’t understand what would be photoshopped in that part of the image though. it’s too far down to be Kate’s hand, and if the kid was photoshopped in, why is her dress underneath showing through? The shop could only be concealing something ON the kid, right?
My guess is she was holding a doll or something and that’s what was manipulated out
I’m also not actually following any of this this though. Anybody got a TL;DR in what the conspiracy theorists are claiming?
She, the Princess of Wales, went missing following a surgery at the beginning of the year. The most prevalent claim is that there was a complication with the surgery and may be in a coma or worse.
The idea is that telltale signs of the photo being altered would imply the family is hiding her condition and released a fake photo to buy time
The thing I don’t get is why hide it at all. “She’s recovering. That’s all you get to know.” Is going to attract the same attention as trying to hide it, while telling sane people to fuck off.
Unless they offed her. But uh, we won’t go there.
Well this would be another outspoken woman that was not traditionally married that died in suspicious circumstances within two generations. To say it wouldn’t look suspicious would be a lie.
I would expect that, if they really wanted to assassinate her… they’d have found something less interesting. Like maybe something that gives her cancer or something.
Okay, I thought the conspiracy theories were kinda silly at first. But now, even though I don’t care about Kate Middleton or any of the royal family, I gotta admit I’m kinda curious now.
Yeah, this is getting pretty weird.
There is nothing to the conspiracy theories, she’s had abdominal surgery and wants to keep her health problems private. The UK press are intrusive and horrible, and the social media conspiracy theories are just gossiping.
There are plenty of operations that would need a couple weeks of hospital recovery and about 6 weeks recovery at hone (Easter is only the end of March). People speculating are ignorant about basic medical matters and can’t let someone have their privacy. There is no conspiracy.
She had a breakdown, that’s what’s being hid.
And your evidence is?
Dodgily edited photos for a start lol. I’m closer than you are, let’s just leave it at that.
Lol yeah sure bud.
Is it really that difficult to just not post a picture then? I mean, I’ve managed to go 40 years without posting any pictures to social media, and I’m not even a princess.
