Don't believe that fake viral photo of Emma González ripping up the Constitution

Rachel Thompson


Emma González's arresting speech at the March for Our Lives is one we won't forget for years to come.

But, as González and millions of people marched to demand legislation to prevent gun violence, fake images of the activist ripping the U.S. Constitution were being circulated by self-professed NRA supporters.

SEE ALSO: Emma Gonzalez's March For Our Lives speech will go down in history

The image was debunked by Don Moynihan—professor of government at University of Wisconsin—who tweeted the doctored image alongside the original image, which showed González tearing up a gun-range target. The original image is a screenshot of a video produced by Teen Vogue to accompany an op-ed penned by the 18-year-old, entitled "Why This Generation Needs Gun Control."

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According to Moynihan, the doctored image was one of the first images to appear after searching for the #EmmaGonzalez hashtag on Twitter.

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The fake image was tweeted out by an account named "Linda NRA Supporter" and gained over 65K retweets. Moynihan wrote in a Twitter thread that the self-professed NRA supporter could well have been a "Russian troll seeking to sow division."

Moynihan later added that the eight digits in the account's Twitter handle suggested that "Linda NRA Supporter" was likely a bot. Twitter subsequently suspended the account.

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"Linda" wasn't the only account responsible for distributing the fake image of González.

According toThe Washington Post, Gab—a "popular refuge for the alt-right"—also posted a GIF showing the activist ripping up the Constitution, gaining 1.5K retweets and nearly 3K likes. This GIF is still live on Twitter.

Hours later, Gab posted a follow-up tweet to state that the GIF was "obviously a parody/satire."

But, by the time Gab posted its second tweet informing its 100K followers that the GIF was a "comedic reflection of reality," scores of users had already taken the GIF at face value and believed it to be true.

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"Nothing says 'I am NOT a fascist' like tearing up the greatest symbol of freedom that the world has ever known," replied one Twitter user.

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