A fake tweet that appears to show conservative pundit Ben Shapiro commenting on how sharing cupcakes with poor kids enraged him as a child is making the rounds on Facebook.
“My #redpill moment came about when I turned 7 years old,” a screenshot of the tweet reads. “My mom sent me to school with cupcakes for my birthday and the teacher made me share them with my classmates, even the poor ones whose mothers never sent cupcakes for THEIR birthdays. The rage of that day has never left me.”
The screenshot shows that the tweet was purportedly posted on Shapiro’s account at 10:22 a.m. on March 26. Except, it wasn’t.
Shapiro never wrote this. The image comes from a satirical Reddit thread that targets conservatives. A search of Shapiro’s Twitter feed shows no sign of the tweet.
The screenshot was first posted to a subreddit called “ToiletPaperUSA.” The satirical subreddit says it is “dedicated to the mockery of Turning Point USA and conservative pseudo intellectualism.” The post is flagged on the thread as “fake news” and says it means that “the post is fake and is most likely satire.”
Users on Facebook didn’t know that though, with many circularing the screenshot as if it were real and criticizing Shapiro over the words.
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This is not a real post by Ben Shapiro. The screenshot came from a satirical subreddit.
Statement
Context
a Facebook postSpeaker/Target
Statement Date
Our Sources
Facebook post, March 29, 2021
Twitter search, Ben Shapiro, March 31, 2021
Reddit, ToiletPaperUSA subreddit post, Accessed March 31, 2021
Snopes, Did Ben Shapiro Say His ‘Red Pill Moment’ Was Sharing Cupcakes With Poor Kids?, March 30, 2021
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