Fact check: Online disinformation rife after Krakow mass shooting

The attack on Krakow's historic Old Town has left six people dead and sparked a formal investigation by Poland's national prosecutor's office. The gunman, later identified as Michal Oksinski, is also suspected of killing three family members before the spree.

Despite the official investigation, a flood of misinformation has filled the information vacuum. Social media users have been sharing a variety of false claims, including fake images of the attacker and doctored posts linking him to Ukraine.

Deutsche Welle's fact-checking team has analyzed the most widespread claims and found them to be false. The organization has identified several instances of AI-generated content and manipulated posts designed to mislead the public.

One of the most viral pieces of disinformation is a picture circulating on social media that purports to show the real face of the suspected attacker. The image is described as showing a 25-year-old Polish citizen, with a caption claiming the death toll has reached six.

DW Fact Check determined that the image is fake. The unusual sharpness of the photo raises doubts about its authenticity, as it is difficult to imagine capturing such a clear image in a chaotic situation.

The organization used two different AI detectors to verify the image. Hive Moderation identified it as 99.5% AI-generated, while Google's SynthID Detector confirmed that it contains a watermark, indicating it was generated or edited using Google's AI technology.

Several versions of the suspect image have been circulating online, most looking very similar. Some of the posts sharing these images have also been labeled as AI-generated by the platforms themselves.

The AI-generated images appear to have been created using footage from the attack as a reference. While DW cannot independently verify the footage, it shares similarities in terms of people and background with some original images published by picture agencies.

Another false claim suggests that the attacker, Michal Oksinski, was a supporter of Ukraine. This claim is supposedly backed up by a picture of a post in a Telegram channel showing the attacker wearing a Ukrainian flag insignia.

The Telegram channel in question is almost certainly inauthentic. The account allegedly posted a photo on November 3, showing the attacker holding a gun, standing in front of a television and a Ukrainian insignia on the wall.

DW verified the posts on the Telegram app by checking their edit history. Both the post on November 3 and the post on November 4, which reads "11/7/2026" (the date of the attack), were edited on November 8, after the suspect had been apprehended.

The channel's photo, a Ukrainian flag, was also edited after the attack took place. This is a common disinformation tactic, where fake accounts edit old posts and pictures in the days after a breaking news event to give the appearance that they've predicted or announced the event in advance.

Further proof of the post's inauthenticity includes the date format. In Poland, the date is written first, not the month, which contradicts the format used in the doctored post.

A third claim alleges that the attacker had links to a group that operated in Ukraine. An X post viewed nearly 100,000 times claims the attacker had a full arsenal in his trunk, including patches from an American military company active in Ukraine.

DW Fact Check found this claim to be false. The attached photo claims to show the attacker's car with a trunk full of guns, ammunition, a helmet, and a military vest.

The vest in the trunk features a symbol supposedly connected to the Forward Observations Group, an American tactical training lifestyle brand that has traveled to and operated in Ukraine.

However, the patch is actually the Old Roger flag, a symbol commonly used in military circles. The Forward Observations Group logo is a variation of this symbol, featuring a horned skeleton holding a gun, not an hourglass.

The photo is also not the attacker's car from the scene of the crime. The license plate is registered with the Krakow police, indicating they likely collected evidence from the crime scene and moved it to this car.

The investigation into the Krakow shooting is ongoing, and authorities are working to piece together the full details of the crime. In the meantime, the spread of disinformation serves as a stark reminder of the need for critical thinking and verification during breaking news events.