The Kate Middleton saga continues — in light of Kensington Palace choosing to keep their fake photo of her up on Instagram … the platform is now warning people, this is fraudulent.

IG has officially slapped the Mother’s Day picture seen ’round-the-world — which has since been revealed to be heavily edited — with a flag that explicitly lets people know the picture ain’t authentic … and that users would be wise to be cautious with it.

The disclaimer on her post now reads, “Altered photo/video. The same altered photo was reviewed by independent fact-checkers in another post.”

A further description of their decision to label her picture with this explains that the fact-checker found the photo had been edited in a way that could mislead people, but not because it was shown out of context. Translation … this thing was cooked up in the lab!

The third-party fact-checker that IG (Meta) is relying on for this conclusion is a company called EFE Verifica — which is a Spanish org that specializes in this sorta thing.

BTW, Instagram is not the only company that’s distancing itself from Kate’s pic — French news agency AFP (a well-respected player) came out publicly this week to say that they do not consider Kensington Palace a trusted source.

AFP’s global news director said they were going to heavily vet anything that Kensington sends their way going forward … and a notice has been sent to their teams globally.

It’s a big hit to the reputation of Kensington Palace, no doubt — and the fact that they still have this doctored image up is astounding … especially with all the backlash, conspiracy theories and speculation that has followed on Kate’s whereabouts and condition.

Of course, this head-in-the-sand approach — remember, the Palace has yet to address more questions about this, despite everyone having reached out for further comment — seems to be spearheaded by Prince William himself, who’s continuing on like nothing’s happened.

In fact, Bill was on hand Thursday for more Royal duties with the OnSide Youth Zone — who help disadvantaged kids — and here, he was seen making cookies with youngsters … and he actually alluded to Kate, saying his wife was the “arty” one as he botched icing decorations.

He’s been doing a bunch of work-related stuff all week, and has yet to address head-on what’s up with Kate … frankly, it’s unclear if anyone’s even asked him.

If his attitude here — namely, to ignore and power on — is any indication … it seems the rest of the Kensington Palace team is following his lead, but Kate-Gate ain’t going away.