https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/05/27/jonathan-riches-make-great-twitter-hat/
Update: Twitter has labeled the photo as “manipulated media” in hundreds of tweets.
A photo of a man wearing a red baseball cap bearing the phrase “Make Whites Great Again” became a trending topic on Twitter on Wednesday, as many misidentified the man as Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer. Chauvin was fired Tuesday after a video surfaced that showed him kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed black man named George Floyd, who cried that he could not breathe and later died.
The Twitter photo actually showed Internet troll Jonathan Riches, a former federal inmate known for posting misleading photos online and for filing more than 4,000 lawsuits. Twitter labeled “hundreds” of tweets containing the misidentified image as “manipulated media," according to a Twitter spokesperson. The added labels link to a thread of tweets from prominent media outlets that correctly identify the man in the photo as Riches.
The image shows two photos side by side: One is a still of the video of Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck, and the other is Riches in his hat — fashioned like President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” cap — picking a blackberry out of a fruit bowl.
The photo and the misidentification of Chauvin was shared by prominent figures, including NAACP chapter president and Bishop Talbert Swan and rapper and actor Ice Cube, who included the caption “A wolf in wolves clothing. The demons are among us.”
The fact-checking site Snopes writes that the photo was originally posted by a Facebook user who claims to be Riches’ relative. Many others soon began correcting the record, as the phrase “Make Whites Great Again” was trending on Twitter. Some argued that the fake could weaken the case against Chauvin.
= new reply since forum marked as read
