An image shared on X purports to show mugshots of student protestors who were arrested.
Verdict: False
The image is digitally altered. The original, unedited mugshots were published by the Alachua Chronicle. The claim was also debunked by Snopes.
Fact Check:
Nine protestors who were arrested during a recent demonstration at the University of Florida have been released from jail, according to WUFT. Hundreds of student protestors have been arrested at pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses across the U.S., Axios reported.
The X image purports to show student protestors who were arrested. “Check it out guys!! The Mugshots of some of the “STUDENTS” that were arrested at the protests are beginning to be released…,” the post’s caption reads in part. “Lets be real.. this is EXACTLY what we expected to be under all those ‘keffiyahs,'” it continues. The post features four purported mugshots. Another iteration of the post, also shared on X, claims the students were purportedly arrested at the University of Florida and has been viewed over 100,000 times as of writing.
The image is digitally altered, however. The social media user who posted the iteration of the image that was viewed over 100,000 times admitted they’d been altered in a subsequent tweet. According to the same user, he sent the images to a friend to be edited.
Likewise, the original, unedited mugshots were published by the Alachua Chronicle on April 30. According to the outlet, nine people were arrested at a recent protest at the University of Florida. (RELATED: X Video Shows German Protests, Not Pro-Palestinian Protests At Universities In The U.S.)
While the applicable charges include trespassing and battery on a law enforcement officer, most of the individuals were charged with “failure to obey a police officer, resisting an officer without violence, and wearing a hood or mask on public property,” the outlet indicated. The mugshots featured in the X posts, in which the individuals are more masculine-looking in appearance, contrast with the actual mugshots, which show that the alleged perpetrators are female.
A spokesperson for the University of Florida directed Check Your Fact to the Alachua Chronicle article.
In addition, the images featured in the X posts have not been referenced in any recent credible news reports about recent pro-Palestine protests occurring on college campuses. Actually, the opposite is true. Snopes debunked the claim, also labeling the images as digitally altered in a May 1 article.
This is not the first time a false claim has circulated online. Check Your Fact previously debunked a social media post claiming Harvard University purportedly replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag.