Viral image of Pikachu’s arrest at Turkey protest becomes rallying cry—even though it’s AI
A protester in a giant, inflatable Pikachu costume is going viral—and sparking a flurry of AI-generated images—after being spotted fleeing police in Antalya, Turkey.
The costumed figure was among thousands who took to the streets to protest Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the wake of the arrest of Istanbul's mayor, Erdoğan's top political rival.
Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu said he and his lawyer, who was also jailed, are political prisoners.
"As if the coup against democracy was not enough, they cannot tolerate the victims of this coup defending themselves," İmamoğlu said. "They want to add a legal coup to the coup against democracy. The evil that a handful of incompetent people are inflicting on our country is growing. Release my lawyer immediately."
Videos of the protests sparked by İmamoğlu's arrest quickly went viral on social media, and nearly 1,900 protesters have been arrested.
One video, in particular, captivated the internet: a costumed Pikachu sprinting alongside dozens of protesters as police attempted to disperse the crowd.
Now, a dramatic image of Pikachu sprinting through a crowd of police officers is making the rounds on social media.
"Erdogan: 'I have an army.' Protesters in Turkey: 'We have Pikachu,'" joked one user who shared the photo.
"This shot of a protestor running away from the police in Turkey whilst dressed as Pikachu, is one of the most surreal protest photographs that I’ve ever seen," captioned one X user.
Was Pikachu arrested at Turkey protests?
But while Pikachu indeed participated in the protests, that particular image was AI-generated, with one of the tell-tale signs that a police vehicle on the right has a misspelling of "TOLIS" instead of "POLIS."
But people who saw the real video can't tell the image is fake.
"It’s not [AI], there is a video, it happened," one person replied to a journalist who pointed out that the image was AI.
Now, other AI images of the protesting Pikachu are blowing up, playing on the doctored scene.
"The Turkish Uprising of 2025 is wild," joked one user, alongside an image of Pikachu fleeing alongside Spider-Man and the Joker, with Batman in the background.
"They are even arresting Pikachu in Turkey they have completely lost it," someone else captioned an AI image of Pikachu being detained by police near an unconscious Batman as Catwoman watches.
The character-laden images, in response to the first AI picture, were created by content creator Eren Fazlıoğlu.
"I believe everyone has an average level of intelligence," Fazlıoğlu wrote in the wake of the images going viral. "Still, let me clarify: The original footage, which was covered by the media in Turkey, only showed Pikachu running. This version is AI-generated and includes other characters for comedic effect."
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