FACT CHECK: Does This Image Show A Real Snopes Article About Hunter Biden?
An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a Snopes fact-check article about a video that allegedly came from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.
Verdict: False
There is no record of Snopes publishing the article. The image has been fabricated.
Fact Check:
The image claims to show a Snopes fact-check article written by founder and executive editor David Mikkelson that has a “Mostly False” rating. The alleged article appears to evaluate a video that supposedly came from a laptop belonging to Biden.
The New York Post on Oct. 14 published alleged materials from a copied hard drive that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani claims came from a laptop that belonged to the former vice president’s son. Check Your Fact has not independently verified the contents of the laptop. (RELATED: Did Donald Trump Tweet About An Instagram Page Releasing Content From Hunter Biden’s Alleged Laptop?)
A search of the Snopes website yielded no results for the purported article about Biden, and it is not listed on Mikkelson’s author page. Archived versions of the website also do not show the article being published. Snopes reporter Dan Evon confirmed to Reuters that it “is not a real Snopes article.”
Evon told Reuters that the fabricated image “appears to be part of the same smear campaign that either started or spread on 4chan earlier this month.” Earlier in October, some users on the internet forum 4chan created and circulated “doctored screenshots of Snopes fact checks to make it appear as if Snopes fact-checkers addressed claims” that they had not, Snopes reported Oct. 22.
This isn’t the first time social media users have shared an image of a fabricated news article. In July, multiple Facebook users used a fake image to falsely claim The New York Times published and quickly took down an article about President Donald Trump dying.