Our AI image lost its label on LinkedIn, Mastodon and X

A feature image we made with Google Gemini for one of our own posts. We posted it to LinkedIn, Mastodon and X, downloaded the copy each one served back, and checked all four.

• As we made it: certified AI-generated.
• Back from X: likely authentic.

What changed

• The label. The original carried Content Credentials signed by Google, declaring it AI-generated. None of the three copies had them.
• The picture, sometimes. LinkedIn made it smaller and Mastodon recompressed it. X sent back the same pixels and only removed the label.
• The estimate never caught it. 3% on the original, 1 to 3% on the copies. Without the label, every copy read likely authentic.

What the report said: Authenticity F for the original, certified AI-generated. D for the LinkedIn and X copies, B for Mastodon's.

A missing label proves little: all three of these platforms removed it.

Go deeper

• How to check an image yourself: Is this photo real or AI-generated?
• What a label can and can't prove: What C2PA Content Credentials Prove, by Kenneth Springer
• Try it on your own image