Claim:
Photos of huge crowds at the “No Kings” protests in October 2025 were officially confirmed to have been created with an AI tool.
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online in October 2025 claimed someone had confirmed photos of huge crowds at “No Kings” rallies were created with an artificial intelligence tool.
The protests against U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration took place across the U.S. as well as in Europe and Canada, on Oct. 18. News organizations including Fox News, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported millions of people took part in the demonstrations.
On Oct. 21, a user managing the America Loves Liberty Facebook page posted a meme showing an aerial crowd photo superimposed over a much larger aerial crowd shot, with the text, “Confirmed: Huge crowds from ‘No Kings’ rallies were created with AI: ‘There were about 800 people in Boston, not 100,000.'” The post’s caption read, “Every story they tell is a lie.”
(America Loves Liberty/Facebook)
Other users shared the meme on Facebook (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived).
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, there was no evidence of anyone confirming the pictures of crowds were fakes created with AI.
The meme — displaying a small “S” for “satire” label with the words “nothing on this page is real” — originated with America’s Last Line of Defense, a network of Facebook pages and websites whose owner describes their output as parody and satire. The network owns the America Loves Liberty Facebook page, as well as its “flagship” page named America’s Last Line of Defense — which also hosted a Facebook reel with part of the meme.
The origins of the pictures
A reverse-image search found the meme’s larger picture authentically showed a massive crowd gathered for the “No Kings” protest in Boston Common in Massachusetts on Oct. 18. The Boston NBC affiliate WBTS broadcast similar aerial footage, possibly from its SkyRanger helicopter. The affiliate also reported tens of thousands of people took part in the Boston event, with organizers estimating more than 100,000 participants.
A YouTube video from WBTS shows the same sort of aerial view at the 1:18 mark:
Snopes’ tracked the origins of the smaller, superimposed picture to another anti-Trump gathering in Boston Common, this time in March 2025. The Boston ABC affiliate WCVB credited that image and footage to its “Sky5” helicopter. The same image appeared as the thumbnail picture for one of the station’s YouTube videos:
‘Taters’
The ALLOD network website Dunning-Kruger-Times.com hosted an “About Us” page about their content existing as “parody, satire and tomfoolery,” as well as a jab at Snopes’ efforts to report on their claims.
The page also describes the term “taters” for people who supposedly believe the network’s untrue stories:
“Taters” are the conservative fans of America’s Last Line of Defense. They are fragile, frightened, mostly older caucasian Americans. They believe nearly anything. While we go out of our way to educate them that not everything they agree with is true, they are still old, typically ignorant, and again — very afraid of everything.
Our mission is to do our best to show them the light, through shame if necessary, and to have a good time doing it, because…old and afraid or not, these people are responsible for the patriarchy we’re railing so hard against. They don’t understand logic and they couldn’t care less about reason. Facts are irrelevant. BUT…they do understand shame.
For further reading, we previously addressed a false claim alleging MSNBC aired aerial footage from 2017 and claimde it showed the “No Kings” protest in Boston on Oct. 18, 2025.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.
Sources
“AS350 Start Up, Takeoff & Landing Test Flight NBC BOSTON SKY RANGER Airbus H125 N1231A News.” YouTube, Ed Whisenant Aviation, 23 Jan. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eigplZ9ayhE.
Choi, Matthew, and Dan Merica. “Fallout from No Kings.” The Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/20/fallout-no-kings/.
D’Abrosca, Peter. “Violent Symbolism, Threats Steal Show at Nationwide ‘No Kings’ Protests.” Fox News, 20 Oct. 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/us/violent-symbolism-threats-steal-show-nationwide-no-kings-protests.
Dev, Prisha. “‘No Kings Day’ Rallies Draw Hundreds of Thousands of Protestors | Globalnews.Ca.” Global News, 18 Oct. 2025, https://globalnews.ca/news/11484264/trump-protests-global/.
“Early Monday Morning, NBC10 Boston’s Sky Ranger Caught Footage of the Whale Passing by King’s Beach.” Facebook, NBC10 Boston, Jul. 2024, https://www.facebook.com/reel/473977038568869/.
Goodwin, Grace Eliza, and Caitlin Wilson. “Millions Turned out for Anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ Protests across US.” BBC, 19 Oct. 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93xgyp1zv4o.
Karni, Annie. “Scott Perry Says Democrats ‘Hate the Military,’ Echoing Trump’s Attacks.” The New York Times, 20 Oct. 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/us/politics/scott-perry-democrats-military-trump.html.
“Massive Turnout for ‘No Kings’ Rally on Boston Common; No Arrests, Police Say.” YouTube, NBC10 Boston, 18 Oct. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbOo6io3H8.
Pesoli, Mike, et al. “‘No Kings’ Protests against Trump Bring a Street Party Vibe to Cities Nationwide.” The Associated Press, 18 Oct. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/no-kings-rallies-demonstrations-trump-4baa5de2fab057a0e6ab726f5d7747fd.
Prichard, Matt. “‘No Kings’ Protests Saw Huge Turnout, but What’s Next?” NBC Boston, 20 Oct. 2025, https://www.nbcboston.com/news/politics/no-kings-protests-saw-huge-turnout-but-whats-next/3830746/.
Svenson, Alex. “Group in Boston Protests Trump Administration’s ‘Executive Overreach.'” WCVB, 5 Mar. 2025, https://www.wcvb.com/article/boston-group-protests-trump-administrations-executive-overreach/64040679.
