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A photo showing convicted sex offender and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein sharing a meal with former US President Bill Clinton and Rolling Stones' musician Mick Jagger is being shared on social media.
The claim: Some of the users sharing the image have linked it to widespread speculation about those linked with Epstein being involved in cannibalism, such as eating babies and children on his island.
The image was also shared by news organisations Hindustan Times and India TV with this context, among others.
The truth: However, the image is edited. The original image does not show food on the table, but beverages.
How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on the photo, which led us to a Times of India report that carried a similar image.
This photo, however, carried different things on the table, which resembled beverages. It did not carry plates of white food, as claimed.
Additionally, the report mentioned a string of alphanumeric characters — EFTA00003379 — corresponding to file numbers of documents released by the US' Department of Justice.
This photo showed different things on the table.
(Source: The Times of India/Screenshot)
We looked for the file on the Department of Justice's data files on Epstein, and found that it was shared as a part of the second drop of files.
This file, too, didn't show Epstein, Jagger, and Clinton with plates of white food, showing glasses of beverages instead.
The original photo shows drinks on the table.
(Source: DOJ/Screenshot)
We also ran the image through Hive Moderation's AI-generated image detector, which showed a 98.4 percent likelihood of the image being altered using AI.
The image was altered using AI.
(Source: Hive Moderation/Screenshot)
Conclusion: An altered photo is being shared to show Epstein, Jagger, and Clinton eating white food, claiming to show them eating human flesh.
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