"It’s blatant racism": FIFA 2026 World Cup under fire over racially insensitive and horrendous AI-generated BTS halftime show poster

BTS fans are celebrating the group’s historic announcement of a FIFA World Cup Final halftime show but things took a turn for the worse when a controversial promotional image shared by Forbes Middle East went viral online. The image, which showed BTS with Shakira and Madonna, was criticized for being poorly AI-generated.Within minutes, fans had begun to notice distorted faces, duplicated members and missing idols in the poster. The backlash was so swift the outlet ended up pulling the post, but not before screenshots of the post circulated on social media.ARMY members did not hold back while reacting to the now-deleted image. Many fans questioned how a major publication could allegedly publish a promotional graphic that appeared to confuse the identities of BTS members.One fan wrote:"Why are there 2 Jungkooks and 3 Jins? And where are J-Hope and Jimin?"Others argued that the issue went beyond poor editing. Some viewers called it disrespectful and careless, especially considering the global influence of BTS and the availability of countless official photos online.“How can people find this funny ? It’s blatant racism, nothing is funny about this ?”Another fan questioned the publication’s creative process entirely."@Forbes_MENA_ doesn't have a single human graphic designer? There r millions of bts photos and you decided to use ai to generate them incorrectly?"The criticism kept growing as fans noticed repeated inconsistencies in the image. Several social media users joked that the AI-generated faces looked increasingly chaotic the longer people stared at the poster.“it has been brought to my attention that there’s 5 jins if u look really closely. this is killing meeeeeeee”Despite the controversy, anticipation for the FIFA World Cup Final halftime show remains enormous. BTS is set to become the first South Korean boy group to headline the event, marking another milestone in the group’s global career.Fans also criticized earlier media coverage surrounding the announcement, claiming some outlets previously excluded members from promotional content altogether.“the media has been so weird about covering this news, first it’s excluding a member and then it’s using ai 😭 like how hard is it to find an actual photo with all 7 of them???”Meanwhile, BTS continues its highly anticipated ARIRANG world tour across North America. The group is currently performing in Stanford before heading to Paradise and later returning to South Korea for additional performances.Even with the backlash surrounding the poster, fans remain focused on what could become one of the biggest live music moments in FIFA history.