By: Ishita Goel
June 9 2023
Screenshot of lawyer's op-ed on British education system in The Guardian is fake
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The viral image, a screenshot of the alleged piece, was never published by The Guardian. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu has also denied writing such an article.
Claim ID 8a33bdd6
Context
A screenshot of an opinion piece, purportedly published by The Guardian, headlined, "Our education system is rooted in supremacist whitesplaining, that's why African languages are off the curriculum," is going viral on social media. The purported opinion piece in question, which follows the format of The Guardian's opinion columns, is attributed to British-Nigerian lawyer and political and women's rights activist Shola Mos- Shogbamimu. The strap of the purported article reads, "There's no legitimate reason why English is still the language of choice in a multicultural Britain. Things are changing". The article mentions May 21, 2023, in the dateline. Several people shared the screenshot of the article on Facebook and Twitter and criticized Mos-Shogbamimu for the alleged piece.
In Fact
No such article was published on The Guardian's website on May 21 or any other date. The last piece authored by Mos-Shogbamimu for The Guardian was published on March 9, 2021, and was about Meghan Markle.
Mos-Shogbamimu herself has clarified that she never authored such a piece. On May 22, she wrote on her social media accounts that the viral screenshot was fake. She tweeted, "I found out about the alleged @guardian article attributed to my name from a journalist seeking to fact-check…These racists must be afraid to come up with lies. It's all they have..." She added that the person who originally posted the screenshot blocked her and shared false information about her. In a follow-up tweet, she said, " I didn't write this but there're over 5k ppl liking/retweeting it as true from this guy. Is this an actual piece in @guardian?" There's LOTS of false info online(some I've not seen) inciting hate, bigotry & racist attacks in order to discredit/silence me.”
Logically Facts also reached out to The Guardian for comment and was told, "We can confirm that the link shared has never been a published Guardian headline or story."
The Verdict
A fabricated image has been shared, claiming lawyer and activist Shola Mos- Shogbamimu wrote an opinion piece on the exclusion of African languages in Britain because of supremacist whitesplaining. The Guardian and the author have both clarified the image to be fake.