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Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

The online fast-fashion outlet Shein has confirmed to BBC Verify that an image appearing to show US murder accused Luigi Mangione modelling a shirt did appear on its website but has now been removed.

The image apparently showing Mangione in a short-sleeved white shirt has been shared widely on X, TikTok and Facebook, with one post on X gathering nearly five million views, external.

Mangione has been charged by US authorities with the murder of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last December and is currently being held in federal custody.

“The image in question was removed immediately upon discovery,” a Shein spokesperson said, adding they are “conducting a thorough review and are strengthening our monitoring processes”.

An archived version of the page is still accessible via the Internet Archive Way Back Machine, external.

Facial recognition tool Amazon Rekognition found a 99.9% similarity score between the fake image and a real picture of Mangione appearing in court.

Reverse image searches suggest the image has not appeared on the internet before the early hours of this morning.

It is unclear whether it was created using artificial intelligence or a manual photo editing tool.

“The image is low resolution, but there are a few signs that it might be AI-generated or manipulated,” said Henry Ajder, an expert on generative-AI.

“This includes the lighting and texturing of the image, particularly of the skin, as well the appearance of a blob-like artifact above the right forearm. The right hand also doesn’t appear to show typical segmentation of the fingers,” he said.

Ajder added that generating an image like this using AI is now far quicker and easier than manual photo editing.