Forward or Delete: This Week's Fake Viral Photos
Occasionally, against all odds, you’ll see an interesting or even enjoyable picture on the Internet. But is it worth sharing, or just another Photoshop job that belongs in the digital trash heap? Check in here and find out if that viral photo deserves an enthusiastic “forward” or a pitiless “delete.”
DELETE
On Tuesday, right-wing pundit and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza tweeted an image of a young Hillary Clinton with the Confederate flag, urging his followers to “look closely.” If D’Souza had instead searched for a broader view, however, he would have quickly learned that the picture is an altered version of a photo taken for a 1969 issue of Life magazine.
After almost everyone pointed out his error, D’Souza acknowledged the image was a fake and attempted to pivot the tweet from being another example of his serial wrongness into an observation about wacky ‘60s fashion.
Images via Twitter
DELETE
Just a week after The New York Times earned a presidential rebuke for suggesting people put peas in their guacamole, software developer Cabel Sasser posted the above image supposedly showing the crazy bastards at Subway had gone ahead and done it.
Contacted by the Huffington Post on Monday, a Subway spokesperson denied the sandwich chain was “experimenting with peas” and Sasser soon admitted the photo was a prank—created, apparently, on a budget about equal to the price of a meatball sub:
Images via Twitter
FORWARD
While many of the “incredible” animal pictures found online are color-manipulated (if not outright fakes), this photo that shot to the top of Reddit’s /r/pics page on Thursday accurately shows the coloration of the blue-streaked lory.
Native to Indonesia’s Tanimbar and Babar Islands, these particular lorries were photographed at the San Antonio Zoo in 2008.
Image via Twitter
FORWARD
This frightening photo of a jet engine nozzle’s near-miss with a mobile home was similarly popular on Reddit this week and no less real, depicting the debris from a fiery midair collision between an F-16 fighter and a Cessna over Charleston, South Carolina on Tuesday.
While the jet’s pilot was able to safely eject from his plane, the Associated Press reports that two people on board the Cessna were killed.
Image via Twitter
DELETE
Molokini, a partially submerged volcanic crater off the coast of Maui, is very real. This photo, showing Molokini plus a dumb fake star island, is very not.
As the picture below shows, the actual islet is still plenty spectacular, although not nearly as valuable in 2015’s bullshit-dominated viral photo economy.
