News

Parody Account Fools Twitter Users with Candace Owens and Stacey Dash Tweet

The Twitterverse reacted as expected, with a split between people who thought the mismatched photo and text were serious and others who realized it was all just a joke.

Published Sept. 27, 2021

 (Twitter)
Image Via Twitter

On Sept. 27, 2021, Twitter user @GaryPetersonUSA tweeted a message about political commentator Candace Owens with a picture of actress and former talk show host Stacey Dash.

It read: "Candace Owens will be our first female President of the United States, and wokesters won't vote for her, because they're the real racists."

The tweet quickly racked up thousands of replies. Many of the people who responded took the purported mistake seriously. One of the top replies read: "Ummm, Gary, no she won't. And neither will Stacey Dash, the woman in the pic."

That one response alone had thousands of likes, which signaled that there were quite a few users who did not realize one important thing: The tweet was a joke from a parody account.

MSNBC host Joy Reid also posted a remark about the tweet. In her quote tweet, she appeared to believe it to be a genuine message. Her tweet was retweeted and liked tens of thousands of times.

The same Gary Peterson account previously tweeted a picture of former U.S. Rep. Allen West for a message about conservative talk radio host Larry Elder. Elder recently campaigned during the failed recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Another tweet from the same account used a picture of Usher when referring to musician Chris Brown.

There are several other joke tweets as well that purposely mix up Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, and Maxine Waters and Stacey Abrams.

The @GaryPetersonUSA Twitter account is a parody page that appears to poke fun at conservative politics, and the fact that the wrong picture is sometimes used for Black celebrities and politicians by news venues. We reached out to the account for more information and will update this story should we hear back.

One example of two Black people being accidentally mixed up came in the year 2018. At the time, Fox News accidentally used a photograph of Patti LaBelle during a tribute to Aretha Franklin.

In sum, it's true that a tweet about Owens used a picture of Dash. However, it was intended to be a joke from the start.

Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016.