Photo Showing Parkland Survivor Emma Gonzalez Ripping Up Constitution Exposed as Hoax

As it turns out, the image widely shared by the alt-right is fake news.

An image of Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez in which she appears to rip apart the constitution has been widely shared on social media, but it is actually a fake photo. 

In the original, she is actually tearing up a shooting target.

The real image is part of an op-ed piece she penned for Teen Vogue. 

After the image began circulating over the weekend, Teen Vogue’s chief content officer Phillip Picardi took to Twitter to set the record straight.

"The fact that we even have to clarify this is proof of how democracy continues to be fractured by people who manipulate and fabricate the truth," Picardi tweeted.

“It’s also among the most unfortunate parts of our work at @TeenVogue when we give young people a platform, we want to elevate their voices," he added. "Sometimes, that means subjecting them to hatred and vitriol. The attacks being lobbied against Emma follow the all-too-familiar patterns: She's an opinionated woman, she’s Latinx, she is queer. Some say those are strikes already against her when confronting the establishment."

It's believed that someone in the alt-right movement created the phony photo.

Gonzalez, 18, who's become a figurehead for the gun control movement since the Parkland massacre, spoke at the March For Our Lives rally in Washington over the weekend, but it's what she didn't say that was, perhaps, most powerful. 

Including 4 minutes and 25 seconds of silence, Gonzalez was on stage for 6 minutes and 30 seconds to reflect the amount of time it took shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz to gun down 17 victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month.  

The granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., 9-year-old Yolanda Renee King, spoke Saturday as well. 

Like her legendary grandfather, she also has a dream.

"My grandfather had a dream that his four little children will not be judged by the color of the skin, but the content of their character," she said as she stood alongside Parkland survivor Jaclyn Corin. "I have a dream that enough is enough. And that this should be a gun-free world, period."

David Hogg, 17, who has also become a figurehead for the movement, also spoke Saturday. 

The outspoken student demanded change from politicians and told the million people who gathered at the Capitol, "You can hear the people in power shaking" as midterm elections approach.

As stars were getting dumped in slime at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, the shooting victims were never far from people’s minds.

Actress Millie Bobby Brown wore a shirt with the names of the 17 Parkland victims on the back as she accepting her award for best TV actress for her role in Stranger Things.  

RELATED STORIES