People are sharing a fake photo of Emma González tearing up the Constitution, so please don't buy into it
We should all know by now that things we see on the internet must be taken with a grain of salt, and it’s crucial to be critical of every image, post, and status we consume. For example, if you come across a picture showing Parkland survivor Emma González tearing up the Constitution, don’t buy into it. It’s absolutely not real, despite the fact that people are sharing it.
González, one of the Parkland students at the helm of the current gun control movement, appeared alongside her classmates in a video for Teen Vogue. In a promotional clip posted on Instagram, González tears up a shooting range target poster as the text #NeverAgain appears on the screen.
An unknown person, obviously against the Never Again movement, doctored the original GIF, replacing the target paper with the U.S. Constitution.
The editor also darkened the circles around González’s eyes in an attempt to make the teenager somehow look more sinister. According to New York Magazine, the Photoshopped image most likely got its start in a political thread on 4chan Saturday, March 24th. Since then, the image has seeped into Facebook and Twitter where influential conservatives have shared it and not clarified it was fake.
Here’s the real GIF:
A post shared by Teen Vogue (@teenvogue) on Mar 23, 2018 at 5:59am PDT
And here is the GIF conservatives like actor and commentator Adam Baldwin have shared:
#Vorw?rts! pic.twitter.com/ffbcm6xjX3
— Adam Baldwin (@AdamBaldwin) March 24, 2018
The still image of González mid-rip has also gone viral on several social media platforms.
IF Emma Gonzalez @Emma4Change is a Hero !!!
Than Jeffrey Dahmer is Culinary Genius and Connoisseur !!! pic.twitter.com/rNbxrj3TMq— The Patriot Guard (@ThePatGuard) March 25, 2018
Luckily, many quickly realized the photo was fake. Word spread across the internet in an effort to stifle the trolls. The account that originally posted the image on Twitter has since been suspended.
This image (left) being spread by guns rights activists is FAKE and a photoshopped image of @Emma4Change tearing up the Constitution. She’s actually tearing up paper target in the pic (right). Spread the word. pic.twitter.com/pWa1X1Xvka
— Samhita Mukhopadh-YAY ??????????? (@TheSamhita) March 25, 2018
Justy a sample of what NRA supporters are doing to teenagers who survived a massacre (real picture on the right). pic.twitter.com/czX7IHD8ur
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) March 25, 2018
This is an important reminder that the internet is filled with falsehoods and we should check facts before sharing any political images or statistics. Revealing and upholding the truth is more vital now than ever.