The FIFA World Cup 2026 final saw Spain beat Argentina 1-0 for their second title. However, the post-match discourse on social media was quickly dominated by a surge of fake and manipulated media.

High-profile political and sports figures, specifically US President Donald Trump and Spanish winger Lamine Yamal, became the primary targets of these viral fabrications. Distributed across platforms like X and TikTok, these posts with edited footage and images from the real broadcast generated tens of millions of views.

The most prominent piece of misinformation involved the medal ceremony interaction between Donald Trump and Lamine Yamal. A heavily manipulated video clip went viral, purporting to show the 19-year-old Spanish player refusing to shake the US President's hand by pulling away.

The viral version relied on selective clipping to omit the completion of the greeting. This manipulation succeeded by capitalising on existing political polarisation [read: Spain denying Trump's request to use air bases], prompting millions of users to assume the young player was making a calculated political statement.

Beyond edited video clips, entirely fake images generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) flooded social media feeds immediately following the final.

Multiple viral images depicted Lamine Yamal celebrating on the pitch while draped in a Palestinian flag. Yamal does support the Palestinian cause, and his stand has stirred some controversy in the past, but the image is fake.

Pedro Porro, another Spanish player, is also falsely shown as wearing a Palestinian flag. In reality, the defender was wearing a flag from his home region -- the autonomous community of Extremadura, in western Spain.

In another post, Yamal is depicted as giving the middle finger to Lionel Messi, which is also fake.

Misleading framing and cropping also extended to the official trophy presentation. President Trump's presence on stage sparked friction when he remained in the frame during Spain's celebration. However, the aftermath was distorted online.

When Spain's football federation posted an official photo cropped tightly to focus strictly on the squad, social media users weaponised the image. Rumours soon spread that the federation had actively photoshopped or edited Trump out of the picture maliciously.

The rapid spread of these posts shows the reality of the modern world and how major sporting events and social gatherings often become breeding grounds for digital manipulation to spread rumours.

It's a fact that bad actors routinely combine real, awkward human interactions -- such as a split-second hesitation on a presentation podium as in the case of Yamal -- with sophisticated AI tools to build believable but false narratives.

These fabrications provoke intense emotional reactions from both critics and supporters, almost every time, garnering millions of views on social media.

Very algorithmic!