Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.
Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro has recently opined about the U.S. Postal Service on Twitter, but a screenshot of a supposed recent tweet that’s being shared on social media appears to be doctored:
"The USPS is not only a bloated and outdate government agency, it is also ineffective and incompetent," it looks like Shapiro tweeted at 7:45 p.m. on Aug. 14. "It’s been 2 months since my wife went on a Hawaii vacation with her personal trainer; she said she would send me postcards every day and so far none of them have arrived."
For some people commenting on a Facebook post that shared the image, this is clearly a joke. But others weren’t so sure.
"He made a tweet to attack how inefficient the United States Postal Service is and ended up outing something at minimum very concerning and at worst incriminating about his current marriage," read one description of the image.
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
Searching Shapiro’s account, we couldn’t find the tweet that appears in the Facebook post.
On Aug. 14, he retweeted several accounts and he shared his own endorsement of a documentary about World War II.
As we’ve documented before, people can use websites to create images that look like real tweets that very much are not. It’s happened with President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And in this case, apparently, Shapiro.
Searching for the statement online, we found nothing to support that Shapiro said this.
We rate it False.
Facebook post, Aug. 16, 2020
Ben Shapiro tweet, Aug. 17, 2020
Ben Shapiro tweet, Aug. 17, 2020
Ben Shapiro tweet, Aug. 14, 2020
In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.
