Let me tell you about Saturday on Boston Common.
Thousands showed up for the "No Kings" protest—a massive, peaceful demonstration.
Drone and helicopter footage captured the crowds. Local stations covered it live. Thousands of photos were taken and posted.
It was an event happening in real life.
Then the internet decided it wasn't.
Within hours, social media exploded with claims that MSNBC had aired "recycled footage" from 2017. The accusation spread like wildfire—15,000 likes here, thousands of shares there. People who weren't even in Boston were suddenly experts on what did or didn't happen on our Common. People who know little to nothing about foliage were commenting on the green of our October trees.
How did an event viewed by so many, in-person, on live TV, turn into a fake news event?
It started with a chatbot.
Grok, the AI tool built by xAI, made a mistake. Asked to verify the footage, it misidentified Saturday's protest as being from 2017, citing "superficial similarities." The bot later corrected itself, but the damage was done. The false claim had already gone viral.
BBC Verify stepped in and confirmed what those of us who were actually here already knew: the footage was authentic. They matched it to drone shots, local news reports from us and other local news outlets.
They even ran reverse image searches.
The verdict: Saturday's protest was real. The video was indeed from Saturday.
But truth is slow and lies are fast.
Within hours, several popular accounts...
Access blocked. We detected unusual activity from your device or network. Reasons may include: Rapid taps or clicks JavaScript disabled or not working Automated (bot) activity on your network (...