Fact Check: Image of Explosion Near Pentagon Is Fake

The image was digitally generated.

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(Photo by Charles Phelps Cushing/ClassicStock/Getty Images)

An image is circulating online purporting to show the aftermath of an explosion near the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C. The image is fake and has been digitally generated. No explosion has recently occurred at or near the Pentagon building.  

The Arlington County, Virginia, fire department responded to the image circulating via Twitter on Monday morning, announcing that “There is NO explosion or incident taking place at or near the Pentagon reservation, and there is no immediate danger or hazards to the public.” 

The Dispatch Fact Check has not been able to ascertain the source of the image in question, but online observers have identified the flaws in the image that betray its provenance as a product of artificial intelligence software:. 

The Dispatch Fact Check has contacted the Department of Defense for comment. 
If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

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  1. Indisguise

    I want to know about the Thailand slave monkeys.
    PBS had an article about Thai coconut plantations using monkeys in chains to pick coconuts. Hello Fresh canceled all their orders of Thai coconut meat.

    I have a Thai friend that has a farm. He said the video was of an animal show. He asked me how many monkeys I thought he would have to train to pick the coconuts. He also said modern growers use dwarf trees that are maybe 8 feet tall with a larger harvest. So there was no use for a monkey even if he knew how to train this monkey army.

    I trust my friend. And at any rate of all the pictures he has sent me none contain slave monkeys.

    Is it real? It used to be if it was PBS it was usually to boring to not be true.

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    Ben Connelly

    Good work, man. I don’t normally comment on these but I read all of them.

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    J. Eric

    Silly as many of these viral stories seem, I always peruse your fact check. Keep up the good work

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