In February 2019, a mid-2018 tweet about family separations and the permanent and widespread transfer of children from their families to other people qualifying as genocide began recirculating. The tweet was initially published in June 2018, and it said: Stealing someone’s child and then giving them to someone else permanently is not “adoption”. It is …
On February 13 2019, a Facebook user shared a screenshot of a tweet, originally tweeted a day earlier by @HISTORY about a purported version of the Underground Railroad running south to Mexico: Text for the tweet read: Slaveholders knew that enslaved people were escaping to Mexico, and the U.S. tried to get Mexico to sign …
In February 2019, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was among a number of Democratic women wearing all white ensembles for the president’s State of the Union address, and the New York congresswoman’s outfit in particular inspired a number of memes. On Facebook, one iteration (and variations) asserted that Ocasio-Cortez’s look was expensive, heavily implying (or even saying …
Did Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s State of the Union Outfit Cost Thousands of Dollars? Read More »
In early February 2019, a Facebook user shared the meme below, which claims that after Australia went through a government shutdown in 1975 its citizens kicked out the entire legislature and started over: Text overlaid on a photograph of what looked like the inside of a legislative building stated: In 1975 Australia had a government …
Did Australia Fire Its Entire Legislature After a 1975 Government Shutdown? Read More »
On February 5 2019, Facebook user Anna Love shared the following image in a status update, claiming that the photograph shows Nazi Socialist women wearing their customary white attire: In the status update field, Love wrote: The League of Nazi Socialist women who supported Hitler’s dream of a socialist paradise. They always went to public …
Is This the League of Nazi Women, Who ‘Always Wore White’? Read More »
In January 2019, the Facebook page “McGroarty for Freedom” shared the following meme, which contrasted purported positions held by Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2013 and 2018 on the topic of a border wall to separate the United States from Mexico: It was composed of two photographs of Schumer, and the meme’s text stated: VOTES FOR …
In January 2019, the following Facebook status update circulated with the claim that undocumented immigrants caused the deaths of more black Americans than officer involved shootings in years prior: White text on a black background unaccompanied by images or — more importantly — citations stated: More American Blacks Were Killed By Illegal Immigrants Then by Police In …
Were More ‘American Blacks’ Killed by ‘Illegal Immigrants’ Than Police in Recent Years? Read More »
In late January 2019, tweets attributed to far-right “influencers” Jack Posobiec and Jacob Wohl on the subject of impeaching former President Barack Obama circulated on social media in screenshot form: The image looked like a screengrab from Tumblr page in which the two purported May 2018 tweets from Posobiec and Wohl appeared alongside commentary from …
Are Tweets by Jacob Wohl and Jack Posobiec About ‘Impeaching’ Barack Obama Real? Read More »
After political operative Roger Stone was arrested on January 25 2019, a photograph in which he appeared to proudly display a shirt bearing the slogan “Hillary for Prison” began circulating on social media: As in the example above, the image was often captioned “A rare picture of what karma looks like.” The commentary alluded to …
Is a Photograph of Roger Stone Holding a ‘Hillary for Prison’ Shirt Real? Read More »
On January 25 2019, the Facebook page “Make ‘Murica Great Again” shared the following photograph of a smiling woman clad in a fur coat and drinking wine, purportedly a neighbor of Roger Stone toasting his arrest during a raid by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents: The original was shared on the day Stone’s Florida home …
