Associated Incidents
Social media users have been sharing fake images of the Hollywood sign burning as deadly wildfires raged across Los Angeles, but the famous landmark was not impacted, according to witnesses.
Raging wildfires surrounding Los Angeles spread to the Hollywood Hills on Jan. 8, opens new tab, causing the L.A. Fire Department to issue an evacuation order. By midday on Jan. 9, however, the fire nearest to the Hollywood sign, dubbed the Sunset Fire, was reported by Mayor Karen Bass, opens new tab to be contained.
Jeff Zarrinnam, chair of the Hollywood Sign Trust, told Reuters in an email on Jan. 9 that the landmark had not been affected and was "secure." Griffith Park, where the Hollywood sign is located, has been temporarily closed as a safety precaution, he added.
Pictures taken by Reuters photographer Carlin Stiehl on Thursday, opens new tab also show the sign intact, with no fire nearby.
But fabricated images shared across Meta's platforms showed the sign itself or nearby grassy areas in flames.
Posts sharing the pictures to Facebook included captions such as, opens new tab: "For all the evil within Hollywood, this is a sign from God he will not have it any longer!"
Another example said, opens new tab: "The fire is reaching to Hollywood Sign. Pls take care guys."
Some images in the posts contained the logo, opens new tab of social media platform X's AI chatbot, Grok, which users can command to create images. When prompted by Reuters, it created images, opens new tab of the landmark sign burning that are similar to the fakes that went viral.
James O'Brien, professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, told Reuters via email that images with the Grok watermark are "essentially labeled as being from a Generative AI."
In the one without that Grok signature, he said, unnatural lighting on the letters of the Hollywood sign and the different levels of compression between the fire, lighting and background are signs that the fire was added to the photo, either using image-editing software or generative AI.
The Sunset Fire, which was centered just above Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame, would have needed to spread at least two miles, opens new tab and across the 101 Freeway to reach the Hollywood sign.
By Thursday morning, firefighters working through the night had reduced the Sunset Fire to about 43 acres, LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley announced. A city fire department spokeswoman added that no buildings were lost in the area and the evacuation order was lifted.
VERDICT
False. The Hollywood sign was unaffected by the Los Angeles wildfires, according to the chair of the Hollywood Sign Trust and a Reuters witness.