Facebook Removes Little Timmy Salutes the Flag Photo-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Facebook removed a “Little Timmy Salutes the Flag” photo of a boy saluting the American flag because some groups reported it as “offensive.”
The Truth:
Given that the Little Timmy Salutes the Flag photo remains prominently displayed and easy to find on Facebook, claims that Facebook removed the photo because some people reported it as “offensive” material are clearly fiction.
Rumors about Facebook removing the Little Timmy Salutes the Flag photo began circulating in mid-2016, and they continue to persist today. Most often, a meme showing a small child saluting the American flag features text that urges readers to “like” and “share” the image to push back against Facebook’s attempts to flag the so-called Little Timmy Salutes the Flag photo as offensive. The message reads:
Facebook had the NERVE to remove the beloved photo “Little Timmy Salutes the Flag” because Americans find it “hateful.” Let’s all LIKE & SHARE to show there’s nothing hateful about AMERICA!
The upper right hand of the photo is tagged “SB4TK,” which means that it originated with the Facebook group Southern Baptists for Todd Kincannon Facebook group. The since-deleted Facebook wasn’t actually tied to Todd Kincannon, the former executive director of the South Carolina GOP. Rather, the group worked against Kincannon by circulating false memes about patriotism and political correctness to “troll” Kincannon’s supporters into recirculating false information within their online communities. The group’s tagline was, “We encourage Mr. Kincannon to continue to speak out on behalf of conservative Christians everywhere.”
Again, the fact that Timmy Salutes the Flag photo continues to appear on Facebook would suggest that the photo has not been banned or removed for being deemed “hateful” by non-Americans.
The original Little Timmy Salutes the Flag photo first appeared at the website of a flag wholesaler named Collins Flags in December 2013. The little boy in the photo is not identified, and the photo originally accompanied a blog post about how to correctly salute the flag.
Given all that, we’re calling reports that Facebook has removed the Little Timmy Salutes the Flag Photo as “fiction.”