Extinction Rebellion said it did not issue this poster about the coronavirus

This article is more than one year old.
Published on April 3, 2020 at 07:25
2 min read
By AFP Australia

An image has been shared hundreds of times in multiple posts on Facebook alongside a claim it shows a poster issued by activist group Extinction Rebellion that states “Corona is the cure, humans are the disease”. The claim is false; Extinction Rebellion said that the image was published by an unaffiliated Twitter account and that the poster’s message in “no way” represents the global environmental movement’s “principles and values”.

This Facebook post was published on March 26, 2020. The image in the post shows a flyer with the Extinction Rebellion logo that reads: “Corona is the cure, humans are the disease”.

Below is a screenshot of the post:

The image was also shared on Facebook here, here, here and here. Craig Kelly, a Liberal member of the Australian Parliament, shared the image here.

The claim is false.

A keyword search found that the image was originally tweeted on March 24, 2020 here by an account named XREastMidlands (@XR_East). The account has since been suspended from Twitter.

Below is a screenshot of the archived tweet:

Extinction Rebellion replied to the tweet on March 25, 2020 denouncing the message and denying any affiliation with the account.

"This account is not managed by Extinction Rebellion UK or Extinction Rebellion East Midlands, and these messages are in no way a representation of the principles and values held by the movement and so are not the movement. We are investigating this now,” the tweet reads.

This account is not managed by Extinction Rebellion UK or Extinction Rebellion East Midlands, and these messages are in no way a representation of the principles and values held by the movement and so are not the movement. We are investigating this now.
— Extinction Rebellion (@ExtinctionR) March 25, 2020

Another tweet published here on March 27, 2020 by Extinction Rebellion UK also condemned the poster.

“Yesterday, an account @xr_east tweeted a pic with a poster advocating eco-fascist views about #COVID2019 & humanity. These views are against our values & #ExtinctionRebellion condemn them. We are investigating who was behind this post but took swift action against the account,” the tweet reads.

Yesterday, an account @xr_east tweeted a pic with a poster advocating eco-fascist views about #COVID2019 & humanity. These views are against our values & #ExtinctionRebellion condemn them. We are investigating who was behind this post but took swift action against the account. pic.twitter.com/wjhYID5Cwg
— Extinction Rebellion UK ? (@XRebellionUK) March 26, 2020

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