It ’s that time of yr again when we face back at the photos and GIFs that went viral over the past 12 months . We did similar class - ending round - ups in2014,2015,2016and I must say that 2017 was even weirder than common . How so ? There were so many bastard images swirling around the internet that it was hard to resolve which I to debunk .
We debunked fewer than 30 images and GIFs this class but it was n’t for deficiency of cloth . The term “ fake news ” has become so politically charged that simple fact - checking is meet with suspicion .
Yes , we expect at plenty of bogus political double this year , but we also investigated hoax photos of famous person like Marilyn Monroe , creepy-crawly Christmas pic , and even misleading photos about porn . Did you see the pic of that Japanese apartment where some poor guy was supposedly crush to dying by his own porn collection ? That story was fake .
So without further ado , here are 29 photos and GIFs that you credibly saw around the cyberspace this year . And they ’re all fake in one way or another .
1) Did this guy actually get stabbed for his “neo-Nazi” haircut?
think that cat on Facebook who said he got stab by some alien because he had a “ neo - national socialist ” haircut ? You ’re never go to believe this , but the story was full bullshit . He accidentallystabbed himself . And pick it on a non - actual black guy .
Joshua Witt , a 26 - yr - sure-enough from Colorado , posted some photos to Facebook on August 16th , claiming that he had been poke for his “ neo - national socialist haircut . ” Cutting your hair extremely unretentive on the sides and leaving some distance on top has become known as the cool cut of meat for kids on the alt - right .
“ Soooooooo on the face of it I count like a neo - Nazi and got stabbed for it , ” Witt claimed in anow - deleted post . “ Luckily I put my hands up to stop it so he only poke my bridge player … please keep in mind there was no conversation between me and this dude I was literally just catch out of my car . ”
Witt ’s bloody Facebook mail service quickly break down viral and everyone fromInside EditiontoFox Newsto theAlex Jones Showwas outrage over this over - the - top story . But , as we mention , it ’s bullshit .
Witt ’s narrative was first debunkedby Buzzfeedwho contacted the police in Sheridan , Colorado for the full story . Gizmodo reached out to the Sheridan Police Department as well , who confirmed that Witt actually stabbed himself . And on top of that , he in the beginning told law that his attacker was a “ bleak male ” in his mid-20s .
Police checked surveillance footage near the Steak n ’ Shake where he was allegedly attack and could n’t find anybody running from the scene like Witt had claimed . What did they really find on the tapes ? Footage of Witt buying a knife at a nearby memory board minutes before he was allegedly “ attacked . ”
“ On August 24 , 2017 Sheridan Police , re - interview Mr. Witt where he was confronted with all the data listed above , ” Sheridan Police Chief Mark Campbell secern Gizmodo in a command .
“ Mr. Witt subsequently admitted to accidentally cut himself with the knife while park in his car in front of the sporting goods memory and allow in making up the news report about being assault , ” Chief Campbell continued .
Witt was booked and release for file a false police report card . He faces up to a $ 2,650 mulct and up to a yr in gaol .
Judging by his engagement picture , Witt really lease his hair grow out a bit , just as he enjoin Fox News he was go to do . plausibly a beneficial call if there were in reality the great unwashed out there stabbing random passersby for have a high - and - plastered haircut . But it ’s less necessary now that we have sex the truth .
Do n’t act with knife , minor . And if you accidentally jab yourself , do n’t find fault your problem on invisible dim people .
2) IsthisMarilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor?
The net loves Marilyn Monroe . But the cyberspace is fill with tons offake Marilyn Monroe photograph . So you could believably guess what we have to say about the photo purporting to show Marilyn and Elizabeth Taylor above . That ’s right , it ’s bastard .
Photo debunker Hoaxeye points out that the photo is actually a combining oftwo exposure . The photo of Elizabeth Taylor was taken in 1948 by Mark Kauffman .
And the photo of Marilyn Monroe was taken at Griffith Park in Los Angeles in 1950 by Ed Clark :
It ’s undecipherable who first created the ocular mash - up , but it will probably continue circulating online until the cyberspace itself die and withers aside . Again , the internet really enjoy photos of Marilyn Monroe , real orfake .
Fake viaTwitter
3) Is this video that Vladimir Putin is showing Oliver Stone really Russians fighting ISIS?
Have you seen Oliver Stone ’s in vogue documentary film , The Putin Interviews ? The four - part series is grow a mint of flack in the American press for being a love varsity letter to Vladimir Putin . But there ’s one scene in particular that ’s now getting extra examination . Putin look to be helping circulate fake word .
The third part of the four - hour docudrama have a scene where Putin rip out a smartphone and shows Stone what he says are Russian forces fight down ISIS in Syria . The only problem ? The footage really shows Americans push against Taliban force in Afghanistan in 2009 .
Our side - by side of thetwo filmswas attract from YouTube for copyright infringement , despite it being comely usage . But you could still find out the essential parts above in GIF kind .
Facebook userFedir Panasenkowas one of the first mass to comment that something was amiss with the docudrama footage . Panasenko linked to what he believe was the original video from 2013 . But I was capable to pass over down the original video recording , host on Military.com , which is actuallyfrom 2009 .
As you could see , the original video has American pilots speak English as they blow up and shoot at what are purported to be Taliban fighters in Afghanistan .
The 2013 television on YouTube ( which is correctly labeled as Americans struggle against Taliban ) has been consider over amillion times , so it ’s no surprisal that it has been recut and re - uploaded for other purpose . The footage that Putin show Stone come along to have been re - nickname in Russian and uploaded to YouTube inMarch of 2016 — or at least one translation with very few views .
It supposedly shows Russian Mi-28 helicopters , according to the YouTube description . But , again , it ’s in reality from 2009 and show Apache helicopters . The footage was uploaded to Military.com in 2012 .
For all we know , Putin actually consider the footage is from Russia ’s competitiveness against ISIS . But it ’s not . We reached out to Oliver Stone ’s representatives for comment but never see back . Stone recite Russian Department of State TV that he think Putin , asking why would he lie ?
' Why would he fake it?':#OliverStoneresponds to allegations#Putinshowed him ' wrong ' Syria videohttps://t.co/VIdk47lkHQpic.twitter.com/vWbJqpcGRB
— RT ( @RT_com)June 22 , 2017
Remember when Donald Trump tweeted out a picture that purported to show how someone who rushed the stage during one of his rally was amember of ISIS ? trumpet defended his tweet by allege “ all I know is what ’s on the internet . ” Putin could very well be in the same boat in this case .
It come out President Trump and Vladimir Putin might have even more in coarse than we first thought . They ’re not evil geniuses playing 10D Bromus secalinus . They just think everything they see on the net .
The Moscow Times is cover that Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov insists the Russian Defense Ministrygave Putin the footage .
“ [ Claims that the footage is American ] are not true . I can confirm that these material come from a report from the Ministry of Defense which was given to the prexy , ” Peskov said . “ statement [ to the contrary ] are incorrect and irrelevant . ”
Sure , guys . Sure .
4) Arethesehot air balloons in the night sky?
photograph of the sky at night are incredibly popular online . But sometimes those exposure are intemperately fake , like the image above .
As seasoned exposure debunker PicPedantpoints out , this image is a composite of two photos . The big hint ? To get the wiz so smart you would need to have a farsighted photo time , but such a foresighted exposure would induce move objects like the balloon to blur .
faux viaEducationalPics
5) Did this young girl really call President Trump a disgrace?
Have you see that video of a untested girl order President Trump that he ’s “ a ignominy to the world ” ? It ’s a satisfy clip for those who conceive the president needs to be called out to his face . But the video is entirely fake .
The cartridge clip went viral on Twitter this year , with countless people believing it was a youthful girl speaking truth to the most potent humans in the world . But the clip is actually from a Comedy Central series called “ The President Show ” star Trump imitator Anthony Atamanuik . The show debut this year and airs on Thursdays after the Daily Show .
The time that has exit viral is embedded below . As you may see , it ’s cropped so that the Comedy Central logotype has been cut out .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/861320374834909185
As you’re able to see from the original TV , the Trump is clearly fake , and even correspond with the young girl that he ’s a disgrace . There ’s some question as to whether the untried girlfriend ’s answer is unfeigned , but worker assert that her reaction is veridical .
Atamanuik is a enough Trump imitator , but it ’s hard to consider that anyone who ’s up closely to the man really call back it ’s him . If you take a flavour at his face , he ’s clearly not President Trump .
Twitter user najahtaa , who captioned the video “ who is she , ” has excruciate up over150,000 retweetsand 220,000 likes so far and intelligibly has no intention of pull up it , despite the fact that ’s it ’s being go around as real .
Even though it ’s fake , many people on societal media do n’t seem to give care , which certainly speaks to the fact that lefties just need a win — any win , really . The little lady friend said what so many masses want to say to the real Donald Trump .
But for the time being it seems that no one is go to get the hazard to order Trump that he ’s a disgrace . Unless his favorite show , Fox & Friends , takes a really uncanny good turn .
6) IsthisBruce Lee playing ping pong with nunchucks?
Nope . This video is actually from a 2008 Nokia ad for the Nokia N96 Limited Edition Bruce Lee telephone . The ad used a look - similar histrion and special effect to make it looklike Bruce Lee . The real Bruce Lee perish in 1973 .
7) Is this Vladimir Putin in a huddle during the G-20 summit?
Have you seenthis viral photoof Russian President Vladimir Putin ? It demonstrate the authoritarian leader in the middle of an intense discussion between other world leader at the G-20 . But it ’s completely fake . And the fakery has even inspired a meme .
Putin friend have been circulating the image to make it look like the Russian chairman is in the middle of the action . But it ’s crap . How do we know it ’s fake ? Because we have multiple camera angles on that exact moment from a sort of photographers .
The original image that has since been photoshopped was taken by Kayhan Ozer for Getty Images . Other photographers like Markus Schreiber for the Associated Press took some indistinguishable photosduring the discussion .
As you may see , America ’s own authoritarian loss leader Donald Trump is talk with Turkey ’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan . The empty hind end was for the UK ’s Theresa May as Angela Merkel looks over their shoulder .
It ’s indecipherable who made the photoshop with Putin , but one of the earlier people to place the altered photo was Russian diary keeper and Putin loyalist Vladimir Soloviev . He ’s since blue-pencil the military post fromFacebookafter getting roast on the societal media site .
And the just mass of the net have done what the net does well when something has been found out as faux : They ’ve made even more fakes .
Like this one prove North Korean potentate Kim Jong - un in the middle of the action .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/883791531408228352
And this one bear witness Dobby from the Harry Potter serial sit in Theresa May ’s seat .
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1924296267835826&set=p.1924296267835826&type=3&theater
And then there ’s whateverthis is :
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10211466523356211&set=p.10211466523356211&type=3&theater
But let me just express for the record that Putin is the best and most intelligent and most beautiful loss leader in the world . People who say otherwise have a leaning tofind themselves dead .
Or , in the suit of President Donald Trump , they get called fake news . Which , if history is any guide , is believably just the beginning of the shitshow . Especially when you ’ve abash the country by put your daughter in your seatamong world leadersand alienated yourself from therest of the macrocosm .
This is n’t going to end well for anybody . Least of all Americans .
8) Isthisa bus covered in transphobic ads bombed in Spain?
These busses covered in transphobic message have been popping up in the US , the UK , and Spain . And they ’ve rightly become the target area of protestation by people who are furious at their hateful persuasion . Some of the coach have even beenvandalized . But asBuzzfeedexplains , image showing one such passenger vehicle after a bomb plosion are a Photoshop job .
The busses are run by the National Organization for Marriage , a Washington - basedhate group . The mathematical group calls the effort a free speech military campaign .
“ boy are son and girls are girls — it ’s very simple , ” Brian Brown , psyche of the group , told USA Todayabout the busses . “ We do n’t want men in missy ’s public convenience . We do n’t want school and our constabulary attempting to say that people are bigoted just because they see that there ’s a difference between male and female . ”
It ’s not clean-cut who first create the photoshopped busses , but the ikon have been used by both transgender right militant and transphobic militant alike . All we know is that there have n’t been any bomb approach on these busses in Spain or anywhere else .
9) Is this really a robot violently throwing a basketball?
Have you seen this GIF of a humanoid robot in a lab ? It shows an inventor gently put away a basketball at his golem . The inventor excitedly turn to the television camera only to have the golem befuddle the orb back and hit him in the face . The GIF has go away viral recently , but it ’s totally fake .
The video is in reality an data-based myopic moving picture called “ Project Helios ” that was directed by Giso Spijkerman and posted to Vimeo last twelvemonth . The synopsis of the film describes the computer - return automaton as a sib of Boston Dynamics ’ Atlas . The fictional robot has a “ BK371 Artificial Intelligence module , ” which is n’t a thing .
Granted , humanoid robotics has been making some terrific step recently . Did you see that Atlas can now leap out between boxes ? It doesbackflips . We ’ve hit the peak where golem are more agile than a fate of humans and that ’s definitely scary . But this one is an art project .
The misleading GIF was most recently sent around by the Twitter account@Scienmag . The chancy account is verify and looks like a legit source of entropy , but it ’s forever spreading crap . As you’re able to see , the subtitle to their most late upload says , “ And this is how the robot apocalypse go ” and gives no reading that it ’s a faker .
gratefully , the business relationship was recently suspended for impersonate Science magazine .
10) Is this Donald Trump crudely dumping fish food into a koi pond?
Did you see that photo of President Trump with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the koi pool ? It supposedly shows Trump inexpertly dump fish food into the pool as Abe looks on in revulsion . The pic went viral this twelvemonth as people roast Trump for being such a clown . But the photo is actually shoddy .
Yes , Americans justly have plenty of preconceived notions about President Trump ’s farcical behavior . But the story that was attached to this photograph , and instantly went viral on Twitter , is n’t exact . In reality , Abe was first to pour his fish intellectual nourishment into the pond . President Trump was simply following his lead .
The two were carrying on a custom at the koi pond , and critics of Trump were agile to charge out that you should n’t feed koi too much intellectual nourishment .
So where did this inaccurate narrative for an admittedly stupid and inconsequential tale come from ? The first White House pool report . But as you could see fromthe TV , Trump was just doing what his host had done .
cautious commentators have pointed to this incident as a causa of “ fake news ” that designate just how untrustworthy the media are . And while it ’s an unfortunate gaffe , it ’s perhaps not the biggest scandal of the twenty-four hours .
In the wide domain of media mistakes , Koigate is probably somewhere between a spelling computer error and post the incorrect hyperlink . But you could be sure that we ’ll be talking about Koigate for some time as an example of what ’s incorrect with the medium . Because nobody is operating in good faith any longer . The yr 2017 and beyond is only a contest to see who can be desecrate over the most infinitesimal details of any malicious gossip . All the while very real scandal are break up American democracy .
11) Isthisa real quote from Thomas Jefferson?
multitude love to cite the found Father of the Church to give their arguments some lordliness , but idiots on the internet aid spread bogus quote from those launch fathers far and wide online . One such idiot is Congressman Tom Garrett , who represents Virginia ’s 5th District . Unfortunately for the people in Mr. Garrett ’s territorial dominion , their Congressman will tweet erstwhile quotes that are completely fake .
Recently , Congressman Garrett tweeted out this quote that ’s supposed to be from Thomas Jefferson : “ The two enemy of the people are criminals and government , so let us tie the second down with the mountain range of the physical composition so the second will not become the legalized interlingual rendition of the first . ”
As the Jefferson Foundationexplains , there ’s no evidence that Jefferson in reality said this . The quote actually come along to come from libertarian torpedo Ayn Rand .
From Rand ’s 1963 essay titled “ Man ’s Rights ” inThe Virtue of Selfishness :
There are two potential ravisher of man ’s rights : the criminals and the government . The great accomplishment of the United States was to describe a preeminence between these two — by forbidding to the second the legalized version of the action of the first .
So , yeah , not just a founding don .
12) Isthisa creepy photo discovered in a thrift store?
Have you seen this “ creepy-crawly pic that was recently discovered in a parsimony store ” with “ only the yr 1922 found written on the back ” ? Pretty spooky , correct ? Well , it ’s not quite what it seems .
Yes , the picture is creepy-crawly as hellhole , but as picture debunkerHoaxeyeexplains , the delineation is actually from 1949 and evince a man dressed as Krampus , a terrifying half - goat , half - demon folks legend recognized in Eastern Europe as a fellow to Saint Nicholas . Unlike Santa Claus , Krampus terrorizes trivial children who are bad .
The photo was to begin with postedto Flickrunder the caption , “ Little pal razz on Krampus Shoulders . ” Still spooky ? Sure . But not quite as mysterious as so many viral Twitter story would have you conceive .
13) Are these Donald Trump’s large adult sons?
Have you seenthis photoof Donald Trump ’s boy Donald Jr. and Eric ? It made me do a twofold - take recently . But it ’s not material . The photo has been altered to make the Trump brothers look like toon characters . Or something like that .
receive future Overlords!!pic.twitter.com / C29735f3og
— Anthony Bourdain ( @Bourdain)July 10 , 2017
Given the recent news show stories about Donald Trump Jr. ’s attempt to collude with the Russian government , the eldest Trump son hasbeen in the newsa lot . And it does n’t look like Junior will be out of the headlines anytime shortly . He tweeted out damning evidence that he suffer with a Russian attorney who promised to provide grease on Hillary Clinton , and the emails explicitly say that the Russian government wanted Trump to gain . So you no longer have to just take US intelligence agencies at their word , I guess .
But that goofy photo is a complete photoshop job and needs to be called out as such , much like the fake picture of Steve Bannon that have beendoing the rounds . It ’s not clear who first made the fake image , but the original photo is fromNovember 12th , 2005at Mar - a - Lago when Donald Trump Jr. got married at his founding father ’s secret club — the same order that presents a monumental battle of involvement now that strange governments can buy a membership topeddle interestingness there .
Other photos from that same day show not only Donald Trump Jr. and his buddy Eric , but their babe Ivanka .
Their brother Barron was n’t deport yet , but the other Trump sister Tiffany is n’t include in the photos for some reason . Poor Tiffany . She always seems to be left out of the party . But it ’s likely for the good , given the fact that the Trump authorities is more or less a criminal initiative at this point .
funnily , the Getty Images water line has confused people into believing that the altered figure of speech might be authentic . But , of form , it ’s possible to photoshop things with the water line still on them . It ’s not clear if Anthony Bourdain realizes he ’s pass around a fake .
Donald Trump Jr. may be an unbelievable cheapness who sell out his country and deserve to be in prison house , but that photo of him is “ fake news , ” as they say .
14) Isthisa real quote from Benjamin Franklin?
Again , people love to cite the establish fathers . But did Benjamin Franklin really say , “ It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question say-so ” ? you could probably guess by now that he did n’t .
Snopes luff out that the quote might be from counterculture iconTimothy Leary , but we do n’t cognize for sure . All we get laid is that there ’s no grounds Ben Franklin ever said it .
People have intercourse to put words in the mouth of dead people , circulating many of the thing thatAlbert Einstein , Walt Disney , Winston Churchillnever read . But if you see this Ben Franklin quote coming from one of those GEE WHIZ HISTORY describe , you fuck it ’s phony .
15) Is this a real photo of Steve Bannon?
This photo of Trump advisor Steve Bannon was popping up on social culture medium earlier this class . Anthony Bourdain even pinch that he think Bannon mighthave syphilis . And whether Bourdain is joking or not , pile of citizenry think the photo is real . But it ’s wholly bastard .
Bannon , the former editor of Breitbart who has quickly go up to index in Washington , has arrive under firing for being the architect of many of the Trump regime ’s most flagitious policy . And with the critique of Bannon has come wad of unflattering photoshops . But sometimes it ’s hard to separate which ones are photoshopped and which one are substantial .
As you may see from the exposure above , the photo on the left hand has been altered . The original is on the right , and was taken by lensman Jonathan Ernst in the Oval Office on January 28 , 2017 forReuters .
It ’s easy to distinguish that it was photoshopped when you see the images side by side . But the simulacrum has diffuse far enough that it ’s secure to say plenty of people think it might be real . When I first saw the photo I definitely did a double take . The original creator of the photoshop wasVic Berger IVon Twitter . His followers believably got the joke . But it quickly spread everywhere without context .
Making playfulness of someone ’s appearing is , of course , not very nice . But the cyberspace ’s fascination with Bannon ’s mug has a slew to do with Bannon ’s worldview , which is undeniably anti-Semite . Bannon , as editor of Breitbart , supervise a website that had a “ Black Crime”section , and order his ex-wife - wife that he did n’t require his fry give out to schoolwith Jews .
Bannon ’s “ boss , ” Mr. Donald J. Trump has his own obsession with genetics and being born with sure superior cistron , often comparinghumans to racehorsesin the past to excuse his theories .
“ I ’m a gene believer … hey when you connect two race horse you get usually end up with a fast sawhorse , ” Trump told an interviewer on CNNin 2010 . “ I had a expert gene pool from the bandstand point of that so I was pretty much driven . ”
exposure of Bannon have inspired plenty of memes and retort - memes . For instance , one meme that was set forth by drollery author Bryan Donaldson evidence the fake image of Bannon next to actor Idris Elba with thecaption , “ Just a reminder that the hombre on the left believes he is genetically superior to the guy on the rightfield . ”
It ’s unclear if Donaldson knows that the image is photoshopped , but it mark off lot of spin - off meme , like this one featuringSonic the Hedgehog :
Another photo of Bannon that ’s commonly used to pry fun at his “ hereditary favourable position ” isthis one that shows him face rather slovenly on a couch .
Comedian Johnny McNulty started his own insult comic current on Twitter that unquestionably exact Bannon ’s appearanceto taskin some very real photos .
“ Insulting Bannon ’s bloated kisser may not be what stops this but y’know what ? It ’s play , ” McNulty tweeted . “ He looks like a rash fucked an even bigger rash . ”
This prompted other Twitter comedians to chime in with their own zingerslike , “ He bet like if Bukowski wrote a brusque story about a full void cleaner bag , ” and that he lookslike“your divorced dad ’s friend who lavish at his flat then hangs around in front of you in a towel . ”
Again , not very nice stuff to say . Not very nice at all . But then again , he is the guy helping take apart everything good about the United States at the moment . So it ’s hard to feel too sorry for him .
16) Is this a GIF of Meryl Streep mocking a disabled person?
Have you see to it thisshocking clipof Meryl Streep making play of a handicapped person ? Well , unlike the clip of Donald Trump doing the same thing , this one is in reality fake .
Back in 2015 , Donald Trump mocked a handicapped reporter at acampaign effect . He flail his arms around , as if to mimick Serge Kovaleski from the New York Times . As you probably know , actress Meryl Streepcondemned Trump(without using his name ) for this obscene ridicule at the Golden Globe Awards .
Now , some conspiracy - minded folks have create a raw gif of Streep purportedly take a leak sport of someone who ’s mentally challenged . The job , however , is that it ’s take altogether out of circumstance .
wireless personality Kayla Vas post the gif showing Streep , and helped itgo viral . Well , in some circles , at least .
But as Twitter userErik Pattersonpoints out , the magazine of Streep actually comes from the July 27th , 2009 episode ofThe Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien . She was promoting her moving picture Julie & Julia and she was actually talking about filming with a lion in the 1985 film Out of Africa .
you could fast forth to minute 6:12 where she talks about getting terrified wreak with a lion that had been off its deuce-ace .
As you could see from the clip , Streep is n’t making playfulness of anyone , aside from perhaps herself for putting her hand up in shock that the Leo , which had antecedently been on a leash , was now file towards her .
People have judge to point out to Kayla Vas that the clip is out of linguistic context and does n’t show Streep mock a handicapped person . But Vas does n’t seem to care , promise anyone who questions it “ brainwash . ”
Ok , cool , glad we get that sorted out .
17) Is this footage of Muslims celebrating a terror attack in Paris?
On April 20th , 2017 , Paris was struck yet again by a scourge tone-beginning , killing a constabulary officer and has allow two other peoplecritically injured . But if you see the telecasting below , purporting to show “ a crew of ‘ moderate ’ Muslims keep the Paris terror attack in London , ” do n’t believe it . It ’s not what it appear to be .
The video bolt down up sporadically when brat attack come about . And this time it ’s being spread out with the help of people likePaul Golding , a far - right-hand political loss leader in England who heads the group Britain First . But the video does n’t show Muslims celebrating a terror approach . It ’s a television of British Pakastanis celebrate a cricket match victoryback in 2009 .
As the UK ’s Independent paper reportedback in 2015 , the video received roughly half a million perspective after the Paris attacks in November 2015 that kill 130 people . It had been posted to Facebook with a like caption , claiming that it showed Muslims in London lionize the holy terror attacks in Paris . That video recording has since been removed .
It ’s a pop rightwing meme around the world to say that Muslims in Western countries are celebrate attacks on civilians in places like the United States , England , and France . President Donald Trump even exact that he regard Muslims celebrating in New Jersey after the September 11th , 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon . But more often than not , it ’s simply a prevarication , as was the eccentric with Trump .
Paul Golding , the British politician who ’s help spread the anti - Muslim picture , was remand for eight week last year when he violated a court order not to embark any mosque inEngland or Wales . He had been participate in “ mosque invasion ” where he would lie in wait the great unwashed worshipping and charge them of sex thralldom .
More recently , Golding postedvideo of himselfyelling “ fuck off you bloody foreign snatch ” during a clangour between anti - fascist protestors and anti - immigrant group in the UK . fathom like a charming mate .
18) Is this a photo of Donald Trump in the Oval Office?
Back in September 2016 , two months before the election , The New Yorker ran an clause envisage the regretful possible future : a Trump presidency . The article was accompanied by a mock - up photo of Donald Trump in the Oval Office . Well , that darkest potential future really happened . And strangely enough , ABC News accidentally used the bastard photo for aTV promo .
The picture , seen above , was create by Ji Lee forThe New Yorker , accompany an article titled “ Trump ’s First Term . ” The entire piece imagine the devastation that would trace if Donald Trump were somehow elected . But someone at ABC News accidentally used the photo to boost an upcoming interview with Donald Trump . And sadly , we ’re now seeing that desolation run out in real meter .
“ When the merchandising team created the promo , they admit the wrong image by error , ” a representative of ABC News toldPolitico . “ They updated it with a new photo as shortly as they realize the error . We repent the fault . ”
19) Is this a photo of police in North Dakota burning tipis at the DAPL protests?
Police havebrutalizedprotestors of the Dakota Access Pipeline ( DAPL ) in North Dakota over the retiring class . But this photo of burning tipis , which is now go viral , is n’t from the protests . It ’s from a fictitious HBO movie that air ten years ago .
Protestors have been collide with police over the DAPL since April . And despite a brief respite in September , when Obamaorderedconstruction on the pipeline to intercept , things are heating up again as President Trumpvows to labour the grapevine aheadas originally be after .
Twitter user Lina Lightbringer tweeted out the photoyesterdaywith the caption , “ America , 2017 . police force , burning down the NoDAPL home radix , tipis and all . absolutely , thoroughly , grotesque & monstrous . ” As regretful as it looks , however , it ’s totally false . A interpretation of the photo was actually used as a publicity shot for the 2007 HBO TV movie Bury My Heart at hurt human knee . you may see the original atHBO ’s site .
Not only has the altered photo been cropped to take out the humanity on the horse , whoever made it also impart snow and hay bales .
The fake paradigm has popped up on at least two news sites , including something calledIf You Only NewsandAlternative Media Syndicate . It ’s unclear if Lightbringer post the photo first or if the Twitter drug user merely get it from one of these sites .
So , what did the encampment of the protests really looked like ? Militarized police shooting objector with water cannons insub - freezing temperaturesand spray protesters with pepper sprayer .
Make no mistake that protesters and the journalists cover the protest were brutalized by police . The response has been horrifying for masses who trust that Native Americans should have a say in the way that their land and resource are being used . But that photo is wholly fake , and it does a disservice to the cause of the water protectors when people circularise fake selective information , wittingly or not .
20) Is this a real photo of Donald Trump in the newspaper?
A newspaper in the Dominican Republic has issued an excuse for running “ phony news ” about the Trump regimen . Did the paper interrogative sentence the racial superiority ofSteve Bannonor doubt the size of it of Trump ’s enormous hand ? Nope . The newspaper unintentionally ran a photo of Alec Baldwin playing Donald Trump on SNL instead of a exposure show thereal president .
El Nacional release an article about President Trump ’s view on settlementsin Israel . The piece included an precise pic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , but the photo of Trump was a second … off .
The newspaperran a correction , explain that they had just pulled the exposure from the Associated Press wire armed service and that it simply move unnoticed by everyone who reviewed it . Who among us has n’t made that error , proper ? I imply , real life has become so absurd that it ’s basically beyond parody at this gunpoint .
The mistake has been pick up and blackguard on societal spiritualist , with plenty of masses wondering if the Dominican Republic will now be added to Trump ’s list ofbanned state , touch on to the seven predominantly Muslim land from which Trump has adjudicate to restrict travelling .
Here at Gizmodo we do n’t desire newspaper to be unravel fake news show . So if you ’re going to write about the president , we meanly hint using the very genuine photo of Trump seen below .
You ’re welcome .
21) Is this quote from Abraham Lincoln real?
Republicans make out to cue everybody that they ’re the party of Abraham Lincoln . Which is true . But they might want to do a little more research on Honest Abe . Because the GOP Twitter report tweeted a fake Lincoln quote .
“ And in the end , it ’s not the old age in your life that count . It ’s the life history in your years , ” the quotereads , attributing it to the sixteenth President of the United States .
The tweet was send out with a “ well-chosen Birthday ” for the President . The only problem ? President Lincoln never said this .
In fact , the quote probably initiate from the forties . As the website Quote Investigator notes , a variation of the quotation was probably first uttered by a aesculapian medico diagnose Edward J. Stieglitz , quoted in theChicago Tribune in 1947 .
Quote Investigator chase after the inverted comma in a web log postfrom 2012 , showing how it morphs and is attributed to unlike people throughout the 2d one-half of the twentieth hundred . By the 1980s quotation book were pronounce that it uprise with politician Adlai Stevenson , the US Senator from Illinois .
The early person to connect the citation to Lincoln might be in a account book from 1997 calledGod ’s Abundanceby Kathy Collard Miller . Though it ’s potential , if not likely , that Miller was n’t the first . Either elbow room , it seems that the shift to attributing it to Lincoln most likely hap sometime in the 1990s .
It ’s certainly potential that the quote even predate 1947 , but there ’s absolutely no grounds that Lincoln ever said it . But with Donald Trump in charge , the GOP does n’t seem too implicated these years with hiring fact checker .
22) Does this photo show an apartment in Japan filled with deadly porn?
Did you listen the story about a gentleman’s gentleman in Japan who got crushed to decease by his porn collection ? It did n’t befall . But you ’d be forgive for call up otherwise , thanks to this speechless plot of Telephone we call The Internet .
“ Porn really is defective for you ! ” the Daily Mailheadline din . “ solitary Nipponese man who amass a SIX - TON pile of dirty magazines died when it collapsed on top of him … and his body was n’t find for six months . ”
But almost nothing about that headline is correct . The Daily Mail seems to have taken a sad story of a adult male ’s death in Japan and added a few lie to make it more sensational . And from there it went viral , getting pick up by the likes ofThe Mirror , The Toronto Sun , CBS Philly , andSky News Australia , among a host of others .
So what really happened ? Recently a Japanese man was found stagnant in his flat . The humankind experience alone and had been drained for a calendar month before he was describe . The coroner ruled that he ’d expire of a heart onslaught . How do we know the real storey ? It was reported in Nikkan Spa in Japan onFebruary 28th , 2017 . The Daily Mail story was published on March 3rd , 2017 .
The Daily Mail story does n’t tie out to Nikkan Spa , or acknowledge at all where its information came from . The average reader would accept that all the information presented in the Daily Mail story was collected by the Daily Mailalone . It appears that nothing in the Daily Mail ’s translation take original reporting , aside from the sensationalist error that it introduced .
“ Man kill by six - gross ton porn aggregation , ” the Toronto Sun read .
“ world crushed to death by porn aggregation , ” Sky News Australia claimed .
“ Man dies after 6 - net ton porn collection falls on top of him , ” CBS Philly announce .
But none of that is true .
Yes , the man had a Brobdingnagian pornography collection . But there ’s absolutely no grounds that he die from it falling on top of him , nor that he ’d been dead for six months . In fact , the most gruesome chip of grounds from the original story in Japan points to the fact that he fell on top of his pornography collection during his spunk attack .
The original story notes that many times multitude who live and become flat alone ( known as “ kodokushi ” in Japan ) are n’t found until bodily fluid leak out through the floor onto tenants below . In this case , the cartridge clip reportedly sop up the bodily fluid of the man ’s rot body because he fell ontop of them .
“ In order not to become a disgrace of the deceased , we seek to put away of adult toys in the room so that the bereaved family will not be cognizant of it , ” a Isle of Man from a cleanup gang who specializes in alone death told Nikkan Spa .
The humans was clearly a hoarder of porn magazines . And he break of a heart flak amongst his hoard of smut . But he was n’t crush by it . I guess “ Hoarder dies surround by erotica ” is a less clicky newspaper headline than “ OMG MAN LITERALLY DIES CRUSHED BY 6 TONS OF PORN . ”
And you question why Wikipedia recentlybanned the Daily Mail
as a author for information on the community encyclopedia ? This is why .
23) Is this a real telegram from McDonald’s telling Richard Nixon to “retire bitch”?
This twelvemonth , the McDonald ’s Twitter report got into a number of worry when it sent a tweet to President Trumpcalling hima “ disgusting alibi for a president . ” We still do n’t know what happened ( McDonald ’s said its account was “ compromise ” ) but Fortune magazine note that it was n’t the first time that McDonald ’s had been belligerent against a sitting president .
In an clause on Friday , Fortune magazine quote a 1973 telegram send out from McDonald ’s founder Ray Kroc to Nixon . The message ? “ RICHARD NIXON RETIRE BITCH . ” But , of trend , the telegramwas phony .
The simulated wire was create by Toronto Twitter user matttomic , and surprisingly , some citizenry took yield with what seemed like an obvious fake . They find fault the fact that Fortune pack the telegram ’s authenticity at aspect value onmatttomicrather than on Fortune writers not using a bit of vernacular sense . One freelance writer for the Daily Mash ( Britain ’s unfunny rip - off of The Onion ) was especially unpleased .
“ you’re able to blame ‘ old ’ medium for not being societal media - savvy enough yet . Or intercept doing unhelpful fake tweets for mellifluous , sweet RTs . Your call , ” Nick Pettigrew , the alleged comedy writer , tweeted .
But we have to side with the imitation telegram Godhead in this case . People sire simulated news program all the prison term that ’s mean to deceive . But anyone who remember that the laminitis of McDonald ’s really sent President Nixon a wire with the words “ retire squawk ” deserves a bit of ridicule . This was an obvious jest .
The original intelligence item in Fortune read :
Few people want a weekend as severely as McDonald ’s social media coach . hacker cracked the company ’s prescribed Twitter account Thursday and used it to send an abusive content to President Trump . The company deleted the tweet and made its excuse before Trump supporter could raise a capitulum of steam to boycott the companionship as they have done with , for example , Starbucks , which promised to rent more refugee in the backwash of the proposed travel proscription . The incident was an eerie reverberation of an instalment in 1973 , when a McDonald ’s employee sent an abusive telegram ( “ RETIRE B***H ” ) to Richard Nixon under the name of then - CEO Ray Kroc , an avid Nixon supporter .
peculiarly enough , this reporter for Fortune was chic enough to know that Ray Kroc supported Nixon , but could n’t apply enough skepticism to realize that perhaps this was a modern creation of the cyberspace .
Fortune eventually issued a chastisement :
CORRECTION : The original version of this article incorrectly referred to an earlier alike incident , which did not actually happen .
And it ’s all too bad . It ’d be fun to make people of the future believe that Richard Nixon receive a telegram from the future that read “ retire squawk . ”
The phrase has decidedly 21st 100 source , stemming from when worker Danny DeVito twirp out “ Antonin Scalia retire bitch ” backin 2013 . So not exactly something you ’d try in 1973 , permit alone from the CEO of a major corporation to the president .
24) Did Sean Spicer say that Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons on “fellow Germans”?
On April 11th , Sean Spicer say thatHitler , “ did n’t even slide down to using chemic weapons . ” It was completely awry and he apologized . One version of Spicer ’s apologia was posted on Facebook , and it looks like just as nauseating as his original statement . The only problem ? It ’s totally bastard .
The doctored apologia appear on anow - deletedFacebook page call “ Press Secretary Sean Spicer . ” As James Cook from Business Insider UK points out , the Facebook postwas a full hoaxand is n’t run by anyone associated with the White House . But that has n’t give up the fake excuse from being circulate far and wide on social medium .
The fake apology said that , “ It was not my intention to imply that Hitler had never used chemic weapon system , but that he never used them on fellow German . ” The hoax post perish on to say that , “ Where Assad is attack his own masses with chemic arm , you have to wonder if he is willing to do the same to United States citizen . ”
the great unwashed who see the message and did n’t understand it was fake were rightly disordered , as most of the people that Hitler gassed were his fellow German — German Jews , among a legion of others .
As often bump , the Facebook post was return around on other social media platforms like Twitter , where it spread even further . But again , despite the fact that what Sean Spicer originally said was completely wrong and there were rightfully call off for his surrender , this special Facebook post was a hoax .
Spicer ’s genuine apologia was n’t exactly astral . But at least he did n’t say anything about “ fellow Germans . ”
“ candidly , I erroneously made an incompatible and insensitive reference to the Holocaust , for which there is no compare , ” Spicer tell Wolf Blitzeron CNN . “ And for that I apologize . It was a error to do that . ”
Spicer later released a instruction :
In no means was I trying to decrease the direful nature of the Holocaust . However , I was trying to draw a contrast of the manoeuvre of using airplane to drop chemical arm on innocent people .
Do you desire to see a fake that ’s actually funny ? Someone wed Spicer ’s wardrobe conference idiocy into a closing credits sequence forthe HBO show Veep . Now , that ’s odd .
Well , it would be if it was n’t so terrifying that our reality is literally worse than an instalment of a satiric show .
25) Isthisa real CNN breaking news alert?
Did you see this dead clock news warning signal about presidential adviser Steve Bannon accepting a newfangled theatrical role in the White House ? It turns out it was a flake too pure . Which is to say it was totally fake .
The CNN screenshot went viral after it was tweeted by a boob tube producer named Melissa Jo Peltier . The joke , of course , is that it expect like CNN is inadvertently announcing Bannon has accepted a unexampled function at the White House as the Easter Bunny .
It turn out that the image was really make by the social medium team at The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and was tweeted outearlier in the Clarence Day . The show made the same jokelast nightwithout the CNN break tidings piece . If you count in the upper lefthand corner you may even see a faint water line for The Daily Show . It ’s funny , but totally simulated .
26) Isthisthe Gentleman’s Guide to Amputation?
Have you seen this 19th century guide to amputation ? It ’s pretty gruesome in a stoic , matter - of - fact means . Thankfully , it ’s not real .
This fake has been swirling around for years . It was created as an infographic by an art scholar and thenposted to Tumblr , where it quickly run low viral . You ’ll see it pop up again and again on those OMG HISTORY Twitter accounts . But it ’s an art task , not a piece of account .
27) Is this a real photo of British Prime Minister Theresa May?
Have you go steady that photo of Theresa May and her fellow Tories in front of the Edvard Munch picture , The shrieking ? It was go viral on Twitterthis year . But lamentably , it ’s completely fake .
The photograph in reality date back toSeptember 2016and shows British Prime Minister Theresa May with 27 storage locker fellow member . The pic take some heating when it was first released for showing a “ really impressive lack of diversity ” in the British government . But , more latterly , some unknown photoshop creative person turned it into a dig at the state of British politics here in 2017 .
The real photo is below , and as you may see , the famous 1893 painting is nowhere to be seen .
It ’s not really the most late photo of May and her cabinet , which you may see below . This in vogue exposure was release by Downing Street on July 17 , 2017 and shows everyone in front of that same painting .
But do you need to see a exposure that ’s not only altogether real , but also a bit unknown ? This one of Boris Johnson has n’t been altered in any agency .
And , um , neither has this one .
Or this one .
Or , um , this one .
I guess what I ’m attempt to say is that the British government activity has a uncanny relationship to robot . And you do n’t need to go around photoshopping anything to find embarrassing picture of the Tories .
28) Is this photo of Steve Bannon with blood on his mouth real?
Have you seen this photo of White House advisorSteve Bannon ? It ’s been doing the rounds on Twitter . But it ’s totally fake . Well , it ’s kind of fake . It ’s mostly fake . It ’s … a bit fake .
Bannon is decidedly in President Trump ’s top - five favorite white nationalists . And the photo has gone viral as a especially repellant visual modality of a man who ’s grotesque both inside and out . But the photograph was really change by parody news web site , The Onion . ( The Onion is owned by Univision , the parent company of Gizmodo Media Group . )
The photo was print to The Onion underthe headline , “ Nervous Steve Bannon Binge - Eats Entire Class of Interns Amid Calls For Removal . ”
The original pic from Getty Images was direct by lensman Mark Wilson at the White House on April 20th , 2017 , and look like this :
Do you see the difference ? Some roue has been impart to Bannon ’s mouth and shirt in The Onion ’s reading . It ’s not much , leading to the confusion . But enough that we know it ’s faux .
One more prison term , here ’s the fake :
And here ’s the real deal :
Still not seeing it ? Maybe this will help …
Oh shit , now that I ’ve put them side by side I ca n’t recount the difference . Which one is the phony ? I guess we ’ll never know .
29) Does this GIF prove that the United States is helping ISIS?
Russia ’s Ministry of Defensereleased startling visual proofrecently that the United States military is assisting ISIS . The only problem with Russia ’s claim ? The photographic “ evidence ” actually come from a TV plot .
Russia ’s MoD brand the claimson FacebookandTwitter , saying that the images show the US had “ unconditionally turn down to dribble out airstrikes against Daesh [ ISIS ] terrorist , claiming that the militants were ‘ voluntarily surrendering ’ and now fell under the provisions of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War . ”
The@mod_russiauses images from a computer secret plan as evidence the US is working with ISIShttps://t.co/8uv2vbEHeQpic.twitter.com/EvqP1Id5pR
— Eliot Higgins ( @EliotHiggins)November 14 , 2017
But the still figure air out by Russia actually came from a game shout out AC-130 Gunship Simulator : Special Ops Squadron . you may watch a snip from the video game on YouTube :
A story about the photoson the Kremlin - hold in news outlet Sputnikhas since been “ corrected ” multiple times , with the current variation bearing a statement from Russia ’s Ministry of Defense :
The Russian Defense Ministry said it is examining why a civilian employee attached the incorrect photograph to the argument about the collusion between the US - go alignment and the Daesh terrorist radical in the area of Abu Kamal town in Syria ’s Deir ez - Zor state .
The Russian government seems to be throwing some “ civilian employee ” under the double-decker for this , despite the fact that it seems like a difficult error to make . If you have extremely tender intelligence , it would be jolly difficult to desegregate that up with some video game footage found online .
And it was n’t just for American consumption . Russian TV run with the image as well :
https://twitter.com/embed/status/930437428749488129
Russia ’s Ministry of Defense has since updated their claim online to not admit the video plot figure of speech :
RusMoDshows irrefutable evidence that US are actually covering ISIS combat social unit to go back their combat capabilities , redeploy , and habituate them to promote the American interests in the Middle Easthttps://t.co/jcb7G4MAfZpic.twitter.com/VIMjfFGJEg
— Минобороны России ( @mod_russia)November 14 , 2017
This is n’t the first time that Russia have used footage of their engagement against ISIS that was n’t exactly what they claimed it was , either . Russian President Vladimir Putin recently demonstrate American filmmaker Oliver Stone some footage on a headphone that he claim was Russians press ISIS in Syria . In world , the footage showed Americans fighting the Talibanin Afghanistan in 2009 .
There is without a question an acute disinformation war go on between Russia and the US as Russia seems determined to weaken America with any tactic at their disposal . But it ’s much easier to debunk false data these years , thanks to the internet . Even if people like Oliver Stone and President Trump would prefer to take Putin ’s Good Book at every turn .
“ Why would he fake it ? ” Stone asked disbelievingly when asked about the fake footage that appeared in his glow documentaryabout Putin .
Yes , why indeed .
Bruce LeeDonald TrumpFakesneo - nazispresident trumpSteve Bannon
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