On June 7, 2023, a viral tweet claimed to show a screenshot of another tweet authored by the United Nations (U.N.). In the alleged tweet by the U.N., the organization supposedly wrote "Pedophiia is not a crime" six times, along with emojis such as a dove carrying an olive branch.
— Eugen? (@panibratchik) June 7, 2023
The tweet was not real. There was no evidence of the alleged Twitter post on the U.N.'s official Twitter account, and we also didn't find it using PolitiTweet's database of deleted tweets from prominent Twitter accounts, including the U.N.
There were other clues that the alleged tweet was fake. At the time of publication, the official U.N. Twitter account had a gray checkmark next to its display name. (According to Twitter policies, a gray checkmark indicates an account represents a government/multilateral organization or official.) The checkmark in the viral screenshot was blue, a color Twitter uses to mark accounts with active subscriptions to Twitter Blue.
The official U.N. Twitter account also had a square icon for its display image, a shape that Twitter uses for accounts representing brands, according to reputable publications like The Verge and Mashable. The icon in the viral screenshot was round.
Oftentimes, to create a fake tweet, social media users start by taking a screenshot of a real tweet by a high-profile account and then digitally editing only that tweet's language, leaving the date and time — as well as its number of likes, retweets, or replies — unchanged. That did not appear to be the case with the fake U.N. tweet; Rather, the image appeared to be a digital creation made from scratch. On the organization's official account, we did not find a tweet that posted on June 9 at 12:32 p.m., like the screenshot alleged.
We've previously fact-checked false claims about the U.N., including an alleged document supposedly outlining the organization's goals to "end the family unit," among other fake objectives.