The photo shows an email supposedly asking users of social media platform X to “actively promote and praise” Mr Burnham’s speech. It adds the speech must be described with a range of positive phrases, including “truly exceptional”, “thought-provoking” and as “a blueprint for the future”.

The supposed email says: “Please like, share, repost and respond positively. Challenge and report any criticism.”

The image has likely been generated or manipulated with AI.

When the picture is uploaded to OpenAI’s verification tool, it says the image was generated or manipulated using the company’s AI tools. It notes an OpenAI watermark is found in the image.

OpenAI says that detecting a watermark “indicates that the content likely originated from OpenAI tools”. It adds “detected signals are reliable, and false positives are rare”.

Parts of the image also suggest it was manipulated with AI, including warped symbols – the paper clip, reply, reply all, and forward icons – and warped text, such as “Burnham” in the subject line.