Jeffrey Epstein has been the centre of discussion in the start to the year, following the release of the files and the list of high-profile names and celebrities that were mentioned in the files released by the US Department of Justice.
The late American financier, child sex offender and human trafficker died on August 10, 2019 in his jail cell, where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide by the New York City medical examiner and the Justice Department Inspector General.
Following his death, a number of public figures related to Epstein which were mentioned in the files faced increased scrutiny of their activities.
The Justice Department released an initial batch of heavily redacted files on December 19, 2025, the deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
On January 30, it released over 3 million pages of documents, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos related to Epstein.
The Department of Justice said the January 30 release, which included over 3 million pages of documents, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos would be the final one, and that it had met its legal obligations.
The new batch of the files was followed by conspiracy theories and images created with artificial intelligence which have lately emerged, falsely claiming that the dead sex offender is alive and was spotted in Israel.
An image has been widely shared on platforms such as X, Reddit and Facebook, while some users claimed that the man in the centre of the image wearing sunglasses bears a strong resemblance to Epstein.
“Israel faked his death. Epstein is still alive and walking the streets of Tel Aviv”, claimed one X post that has had nearly five million views.
“This is Epstein, isn't it?” asked another user, sharing a cropped version of the image zooming into the face of the man in the middle. The post has been viewed more than seven million times.
BBC reported that it ran a reverse search to locate the source of the image and found what appears to be the earliest version on Reddit which was posted four days ago.
A Gemini watermark can be seen in the bottom right of the uncropped image on Reddit which indicates it was created using Google’s generative-AI model.
The street signs in Hebrew in the background also make no sense, a consistent error with AI-generated images and videos.
In the UK, it is now illegal for someone to request or create a deepfake of someone without their consent.
The UK government has also said it’s collaborating with Microsoft and tech companies on deepfake detection.
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6th February 2026
04:36pm GMT
