Screenshot of Guardian op-ed supporting looting in France is fake

By: Ishita Goel
July 6 2023

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Context

On June 27, 2023, a French police officer shot dead a 17-year-old teenager of Algerian descent in the suburb of Nanterre near Paris for purportedly attempting to drive away from a traffic stop. This caused anger and civil unrest in the nation, leading to violent protests. Unverified videos of the riots have also emerged on social media.

A screenshot of a column by The Guardian headlined, "I fully support the looting in France by the disenfranchised black youth. Call it reparations," is going viral on social media. The article strap reads, "It's not looting when inter-generational trauma forces thousands to seek reparations for being sold into slavery." The piece is attributed to Dr. Mos-Shogbamimu, a British-Nigerian lawyer and activist, and was purportedly published on July 1, 2023. 

However, Mos-Shogbamimu did not write any such opinion piece, and it was not published by The Guardian either.

In Fact

We could not find the above-mentioned article published on The Guardian website or shared on their social media on July 1. We checked archived versions of the website as well and found no results. 

We found that the last piece authored by Mos-Shogbamimu for The Guardian was published on March 9, 2021 on Meghan Markle. Similarly, we found no sign of the article on Mos-Shogbamimu's Twitter account. 

Logically Facts reached out to The Guardian, who confirmed that the link shared has “never been a published Guardian headline or story.”

Mos-Shogbamimu clarified on Twitter on July 3 that it was a fake image. She said, "Racist fools hide behind anonymity. Falsely writes this in my name - fake @guardian piece. Spread lies to bigots who believe it. I didn't write nor think this." She tagged the account from where the screenshot was originally posted and said this "account incites racist, bigoted abuse to defame & hate." 

In a follow-up tweet, she added that this is not the first time this account has fabricated articles in others’ names. Logically Facts has also reached out to Mos-Shogbamimu, and this story will be updated if and when we receive a response.

Logically Facts has previously debunked multiple fake screenshots alleging to be published by The Guardian. Among them was another fabricated screenshot of an opinion piece falsely attributed to Mos-Shogbamimu, on the exclusion of African languages in Britain because of “supremacist whitesplaining.” 

Logically Facts has also debunked several claims around France, which are using old and unrelated videos showing looting, protests, and fake memos and statements.

The Verdict

The viral screenshot of Mos-Shogbamimu's op-ed in The Guardian is fake. There is no evidence to support that such an article was published on their website, and Mos-Shogbamimu has also denied it.