An image purporting to show a tweet published by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a hashtag that trended opposing his leadership has been digitally altered. No such tweet was published via his official Twitter handle (@JustinTrudeau).
The fabricated tweet that purportedly gathered more than 5,800 likes at the time the supposed post was screenshotted, reads: “It has come to my attention that #TrudeauMustGo has been trending for more than 24 hours. This is nothing more than the work of Putin and the CPC in an effort to discredit me. This is precisely why our Government has committed to regulating and censoring Canadian online content.”
One user who shared the image on Facebook said: “I have no idea if this is real but suspect it is. Bloody awesome if so. Go Canada. #TrudeauMustGo” (here).
Other examples of the image shared online can be found (here), (here), (here), (here), and (here).
The image is fabricated, and no such tweet was published via Trudeau’s official Twitter account.
A spokesperson for Justin Trudeau confirmed that the supposed tweet was not published.
A search through his account (@JustinTrudeau) did not find the purported tweet (twitter.com/JustinTrudeau), nor did an advanced Twitter search reveal the supposed post (archive.ph/wip/RuMfp).
A Google advanced search did not find any news article reporting on the alleged post, and instead, only revealed the text posted via the meme platform iFunny (archive.ph/wip/YNpkg).
The alleged post is not viewable via an archive of Trudeau’s deleted tweets complied by the website Politwoops by ProPublica (here).
Reuters has previously addressed fabricated posts purporting to have been sent by political figures that duped users online (here), (here), (here).
VERDICT
False. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not publish a tweet about a hashtag that circulated that opposed his leadership. The screenshot is fabricated.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.
