FACT CHECK: No, The United Nations Did Not Tweet About Pedophilia
A post shared on Twitter claims the United Nations (U.N.) purportedly published a tweet reading, “Pedophilia is not a crime.”
— Eugen🛠 (@panibratchik) June 7, 2023
Verdict: False
The purported remark does not appear on the U.N.’s website or its verified social media accounts. A spokesperson for the intergovernmental organization denied the tweet’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.
Fact Check:
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a recent Ukrainian dam that burst is another “devastating consequence” of Russia’s invasion of the country, according to Reuters. The intergovernmental organization faced social media backlash after publishing a tweet that it was celebrating “Russian language day” on the same day Kyiv accused Russia of blowing up the dam, Politico reported.
“PEDOPHILIA IS NOT A CRIME!” the Twitter post, viewed 99,000 times, purports. The purported tweet repeats the statement multiple times and includes emojis of a child and a dove carrying an olive branch.
The claim is false. The purported remark does not appear on the U.N.’s website or its verified social media accounts. In addition, the purported tweet features a round icon for its display image and a blue verification check mark, while the U.N.’s official account features a square icon for its display image and a gray verification check mark.
A gray verification check mark indicates the account represents a government or multilateral organization, according to policies outlined on Twitter’s Help Center. A blue check mark, however, indicates an account is subscribed to the social media platform’s eight-dollar-a-month premium subscription service, Twitter Blue.
In addition, Twitter uses square icons to display images belonging to accounts that represent brands, The Verge reported. (RELATED: Image Claims To Show A Damaged Russian Warship)
U.N. spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez denied the tweet’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.
“The image in question is not a real tweet from the U.N. official account. The statement itself is not supported by the organization,” she said.
This is not the first time a false claim has circulated online. Check Your Fact previously debunked a social media post purporting French President Emmanuel Macron allegedly apologized to African nations colonized by France during a recent U.N. General Assembly speech.
