No, this image has been manipulated to include an offensive slogan
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 10, 2020 at 09:30
- 2 min read
- By Taylor THOMPSON-FULLER, AFP New Zealand and Pacific Islands
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The image was published here on a Facebook page with more than 4,300 followers on September 4, 2020. It has been shared more than 300 times.
The text overlay above Johnson reads: “Genius work from the teachers in this school to spell out FUCK BORIS on the wall behind him.”
The image was also shared hundreds of times on Facebook here, here, and here.
However, this is not a genuine image; it has been manipulated to include the offensive slogan.
A keyword search found that the image is a screenshot taken from a press opportunity by Johnson at a school in Leicestershire on August 26, 2020, where he spoke about face masks in schools.
UK newspaper The Independent published a video of Johnson’s comments in this report published on the same day.
The video shows that Johnson is speaking in front of a different backdrop, where the elements are assembled in a different order and do not spell any words.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in The Independent’s report (L) and the misleading image (R):
Johnson’s visit to the school was also reported on by other local news outlets, including Sky News here and The Daily Mail here. The video in both reports show that Johnson did not speak in front of a “Fuck Boris” backdrop.
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