California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused the Trump administration of deliberately spreading doctored and misleading images of recent protests in Los Angeles.

On X, formerly Twitter, the Department of Defense’s Rapid Response account posted a video that appeared to show burning, graffitied police cars during protests in Los Angeles this week.

However, the fact-checking website Snopes said the image showed protests in Los Angeles following the death of George Floyd in May 2020.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    1 day ago

    I’m imagining a drawing, in crayon, that depicts a bunch of angry black and brown stick figures attacking blue stick figures followed by another one of an orange stick figure standing triumphantly over a white stick figure as other white stick figures cheer.

    “This is what’s going on, you see. Horrible! Terrible things done by these protestors. And this one is how I am going to defeat Gavin Newsom and have him arrested.”

    • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      If it’s anything like his lawyers presenting papers written by chatgpt, they should check pictures for weird looking people and odd non-letters/words on protest signs.

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      In one “photo,” the orange stick figure is peeing on the black and brown stick figures who are frowning and crying. In the next, a bunch of stick figures with melon-boobs are peeing on the orange stick figure.

  • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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    21 hours ago

    Snopes said the image showed protests in Los Angeles following the death of George Floyd in May 2020.

    Isn’t it still fake then, if they claim they’re from yesterday? Politicians have to use simple words.

    Also, they were already showing fake images back then. Or images of faked situations. Or fakely escalating situations, then taking pictures of them.

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      However, the fact-checking website Snopes said the image showed protests in Los Angeles following the death of George Floyd in May 2020.

      The governor’s office wrote on X on Friday: “HUGE DEVELOPMENT: An official Department of Defense account is spreading fake images—from old protests—to justify Trump’s illegal militarization of Los Angeles. This isn’t just disinformation. It’s a propaganda campaign from the Pentagon.”

      This is the next paragraph, I think the “however” refers to the posting, not newsoms reaction to it. Ultimately, old pictures are real and their use is deceitful. Calling them fake is adequate in my book, but not entirely accurate.