A photo of an article titled ‘Biden Quietly Pardons 2,617 BLM Protesters’ is circulating on social media. Although the article is intended as satire, it appears that some users take the content seriously.
While some users acknowledge that the article came from a satirical website, others seem to believe that President Joe Biden forgave protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement, with comments such as: “This is outrageous!”, “Shameless, they are just shameless! “,” He. Really. Must be. Remove. “and” What is the country in default? “
Most iterations include a photo of a phone screen previewing the article on Facebook. Posts that share the image can be seen here, here, here.
The article (here), whose name of the site is clearly visible in the photo shared on social media, was published by the website Daily World Update, which is part of the network “America’s Last Line of Defense”, ‘parody , satire and foolishness’. (dailyworldupdate.us/about/). In the About Us section, the page states that ‘everything on this site is fiction. This is not a lie and it’s not fake news because it’s not really. If you believe this is true, you should have your head examined. ”
Reuters did not find any news reports about this or similar actions by Biden.
The power of forgiveness, which stems from the U.S. Constitution, is one of the broadest available to a president. Although forgiveness is usually given to people who have been prosecuted, forgiveness can cover behaviors that have not yet led to lawsuits (here).
Reuters had earlier denied allegations that Biden had not condemned the violence and riots during the protests over the death of George Floyd here.
VERDICT
Untrue. President Biden did not forgive 2,617 Black Lives Matter protesters, the article stems from a satire website.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.