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.”
Image via Imgur
DELETE
On Monday, this photo supposedly showing a 28-foot crocodile killed in 1957 blew up on Reddit under the title “The biggest croc ever found.” As user Lawskie soon pointed out, however, the picture is actually from more than 40 years before that, originally bearing the caption “Miss Cross & Mr Joynt near crocodile, Roper River 1914.”
In reality, a crocodile of that size was reportedly shot near Normanton, Queensland in 1957, but the only photographic record of the creature is a picture of the animal’s hide taken some two decades later.
Images via Twitter
DELETE
The above image of a young, allegedly cool Pope Francis was similarly popular on Reddit this week and just as fake. Unfortunately, Francis’ chic Black Sabbath-branded cassock only exists in the mind of one unreality-mastering Photoshop user, as the original, undated photograph seen below shows.
Images via Imgur/Getty Images
FORWARD
As was widely reported this week, Donald Trump’s official Twitter account did indeed send out a patriotic image featuring soldiers in Nazi SS uniforms. In a surprising twist, however, the Trump campaign actually acknowledged their fuck-up.
“A young intern created and posted the image and did not see the very faded figures within the flag of the stock photo,” said a Trump spokesperson. “The intern apologized and immediately deleted the tweet.”
Image via Twitter
DELETE
As Snopes explained on Monday, this viral image of Central American immigrants supposedly forced to donate organs is actually a still from the film Tales From the Organ Trade and shows men in the Philippines who willingly sold their kidneys.
The 2013 TV movie documents a Filipino village where nearly every man bears a removal scar, having given up their organs in exchange for “another year’s worth of food and shelter for their families.”
Image via Facebook//h/t Snopes
FORWARD
Finally comes this very real, very spooky image shared on social media by the National Park Service this month. From Facebook:
Ranger William [Leggett] heard a racket outside the Frijole Ranch and then recorded the entire epic battle. The squirrel devoured most of the snake, bones and all, down to the last two inches.
Yikes.
Image via Twitter