A summary of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, stories and visuals of the week. None of them are legitimate, although they have been widely shared on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
AFFIRMATION: The troops in Washington turned their backs on President Joe Biden’s motorcade as it headed for his inauguration on the United States Capitol.
THE FACTS: According to security protocols, some members of the National Guard were positioned with their backs to Biden’s motorcade as it drove through Washington to the United States Capitol.
But social media users are falsely suggesting that a video filmed by an ABC reporter shows members of the Guard turning their backs on Biden in a show of disrespect.
“Many soldiers turned their backs on Biden’s entourage,” said a tweet with more than 3,000 likes that shared the footage. Another video making the false claim had more than 100,000 views on YouTube.
Taking it a step further, some social media users captured an image from the video and showed it in posts alongside photos of Guard members enthusiastically greeting former President Donald Trump at an unspecified event. The video with the false claim was amplified by reports that supported Trump and promoted misinformation in the past.
ABC reporter Ines de La Cuetara uploaded the video to Twitter on Wednesday at around 10:30 am. “The view of Biden’s motorcade as it went up to the Capitol,” she said in her caption.
In the video, some members of the Guard can be seen facing the cars passing by on the street, while others have their backs to the Robert A. Taft Memorial on Constitution Avenue. More than 26,000 members of the Guard from across the country were brought in to strengthen security for the inauguration, following the violent Capitol riots.
The AP confirmed with the National Guard Bureau that members of the Guard were on their backs to monitor all possible threats, according to the security protocol. During Trump’s inauguration, officials could be seen from the back and the back of his parade. “These National Guards were on duty with a mission to protect the president from potential threats. Some are trying to ensure everyone’s safety, ”said Darla Torres, a spokesman for the National Guard Department.
Kamala Harris put her hands on Bibles, not a purse, during the oath
AFFIRMATION: When Vice President Kamala Harris took office on Wednesday, she placed a black bag on top of the Bible so she wouldn’t have to touch the holy book.
THE FACTS: Harris put his hand on a Bible stacked on top of another Bible when he took office. But on Thursday, social media users were sharing a photo of Wednesday’s opening ceremony, along with false claims that Harris avoided touching the Bible during his oath of office.
The photo showed Harris with his right hand raised and his left supported by an unidentified black item, reciting his oath of office. The black item was on top of a thick Bible, both held by Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff.
“She couldn’t even touch the Bible,” said a Facebook post seen over 35,000 times. “Do you all need this explained to you?” read another widely shared post. “A believer in Christ could hardly wait to hold that Bible … a Satanist cannot touch it! Note that he has gloves … She has her bag on top! “
But the black item at the top of the larger Bible was another Bible, as the photos confirm from a different angle. The Associated Press reported that Harris used two Bibles during his oath.
One belonged to Regina Shelton, a family friend whose Harris Bible swore when she became California’s attorney general and later a senator. The other belonged to Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court judge.
The vice president of the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not create the Telegram channel
AFFIRMATION: Air Force General John Hyten, vice president of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, created a channel on the popular Telegram messaging app and posted it dozens of times there, sharing videos, images and phrases like “nothing can stop what to come “and” THE TRUTH WILL SHOCK THE WORLD. “
THE FACTS: Hyten’s spokeswoman, Maj. Trisha Guillebeau, confirmed to the AP that the general does not have a Telegram account and that the channel’s creator is impersonating him. The Telegram channel entitled “General Hyten” was created on Monday.
The next day, it had dozens of posts and well over 200,000 subscribers. The posts that appear to come from Hyten on the channel urged users not to lose hope and “have faith”.
Some posts included videos or images of former President Donald Trump. The posts suggested impending breaking news and the potential use of an emergency broadcast system, mirroring a false theory that President Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20 would be interrupted by emergency broadcasts or by Trump invoking the Insurrection Law .
Several posts on the channel also included terms like “big wake up”, “storm” and “nothing can stop what is coming”, which are often used by supporters of QAnon, a false conspiracy theory rooted in the groundless belief that Trump is deeply fighting enemies of the state and a conspiracy of Satan-worshiping cannibals operating a child sex trafficking ring.
The individual who shared the posts used an image of Hyten and claimed to be him, even writing: “The account is maintained by me. -genhyten. However, Guillebeau confirmed to the AP that a counterfeiter was behind the account.
“This Telegram account is a fake,” said Guillebeau in a telephone interview. “General Hyten has no professional or personal account on social media.” As of Tuesday, the channel had been mentioned in hundreds of other Telegram channels populated by QAnon supporters, according to Marc-Andre Argentino, a doctoral candidate at Concordia University who studies the QAnon movement. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment from the AP, but appeared to affix a warning tag to the channel on Tuesday.