Photos are never a concrete representation of the reality. Photos are being pre-processed by image processor already and we also got Photoshop. One can even fake a film based photo if he knows what to do. The proliferation of image generation models and impainting models make the access easier but image manipulation tools always exist.
The thing is, faking them went from a State can do it, to a professional can do it, an experienced amateur can do it, to absolutely everyone can
Absolutely everyone can was about 20 years ago though.
There’s the practical distinction between “everyone can do it with some dedicated intent” (so few actually bother) vs “everyone can do it on a whim”
In the thumbnail is the Tiananmen Square Tank Man.
Are you claiming a globally televised event which lead to a complete breakdown of trade relations across the world in the 90s, didn’t happen?
No, they’re saying it would be really easy now to create a fake image that would have in the past had that level of impact.
