Punjab Police triggered a storm in a teacup after posting a George Floyd-like image on their official X handle. The now-deleted AI-driven image, showing an Indian cop – face covered with the Indian tricolour – kneeling on a man wrapped in Pakistani colours, was captioned “If you’re caught with this flag, be prepared to suffer the consequences.”

The visual closely mirrored the May 2020 death of George Floyd in the US.

On Monday morning, a user shared a message he received from X after flagging the post:

“X Receipt of Correspondence

Hello @Joydas,

In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that X has received a request from Punjab Police regarding your X account, @Joydas, that claims the following content violates India's Information Technology Act.”

The notification came after @the user publicly condemned the Punjab Police’s post and questioned its intent.

The original post appeared on the Punjab Police X handle during the night between July 17 and 18. Its use of an AI-generated image resembling the police killing of George Floyd, which had sparked global protests against racism, was flagged by several users as being in extremely poor taste.

Criticism and call-out

The X user, who was among the first to call out the post, took to X and said..

“This is an actual tweet by Punjab Police India. They chose an image which depicts the worst racism and police brutality in US to score a point. This image was viral worldwide to represent Police Atrocity but Punjab Police thought this is what they stand for.”

In a follow-up, he addressed Punjab Police directly:

“Also @PunjabPoliceInd - While u have deleted the post, but don’t insult our intelligence by saying the image is fake (There are many screenshots and u haven’t deleted a reply yet) or account was hacked or intern did it (Image was created, approved at multiple level and posted).”

Senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde also commented on the incident, tagging the official handle and DGP, and stating that such posts “were best avoided.”

Punjab Police suggests possible breach

Later that evening, Punjab Police issued an official statement on X to clarify its position.

“It has come to our attention that a contentious post was briefly visible on the official Punjab Police X handle and has since been deleted.

Preliminary findings indicate that the imagery used in the post was AI-generated. We are currently investigating whether this incident resulted from unauthorized access.

Our technical teams are actively probing the matter, including the possibility of a cybersecurity breach.

We urge the public not to circulate unverified content and to rely only on information shared through our verified official handles.

Your trust and safety remain our highest priority. Punjab Police does not endorse any such content in any form.”

George Floyd’s legacy and implications of image use

George Floyd, a 46-year-old man of colour, was killed on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis when police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over nine minutes. The incident became a global symbol of systemic racism and police brutality, sparking mass protests under the Black Lives Matter movement.

While an internal probe is underway to determine whether the post was a result of hacking or deliberate action, the X page @Joydas has now been served with a legal reference from X.