Article saying gardening is a sign of ‘far-right extremism’ does not exist

A screenshot of what appears to be an article with the headline “Gardening, canning and other signs of far-right extremism to watch out for” has been shared a number of times on social media. 

But this article, supposedly published by Canadian outlet Global News, doesn’t exist. It was never published by the site—the screenshot has been digitally manipulated. 

A Google search reveals no results for the article, nor is there any sign of the article on the Global News website. There are also no examples of the article being shared by Global News on Twitter. 

A Global News spokesperson told fact checkers at Reuters that no such article had been published by the website. The reporter who allegedly wrote the article also shared the screenshot on Twitter describing it as “fake and photoshopped”. 

Digitally manipulated screenshots of fabricated articles are a common form of misinformation on social media. 

The motivation behind the manipulated screenshot isn’t completely clear, but the way in which it has been shared does have some similarities with other posts we’ve checked in the past. 

For example, one person sharing it on Twitter referred to people being encouraged to eat bugs, which may allude to a false claim that the World Economic Forum (WEF) had suggested people who don’t want to eat bugs are racist.

The WEF has been the subject of various conspiracies, including that it is trying to control what people eat, which form part of the ‘Great Reset’ conspiracy theory, something we have written about many times before.  

Image courtesy of Sandie Clarke