Claim: A screenshot of a New York Post article suggests that the United States Congress will vote on a bill that criminalises questioning the events surrounding the 11 September 2001 attacks.
Fact: The screenshot of the New York Post article is altered. The publication did not report on any such story, and there is no evidence to suggest that the US Congress has passed any such bill.
On 20 May 2024, X (formerly twitter) user Ataur Rahman (@ataur) shared a screenshot of a New York Post article which claims that the US Congress will vote on a bill to criminalise questioning the 9/11 events.
“You can’t question the gaza holocaust, you can’t question the nakba, ypu can’t question 911. See a worrying trend there?,” states the caption of his post.
The headline of the article in the screenshot reads, “Congress to vote on bill that would criminalize questioning the events surrounding 9/11.”
The viral screenshot contains the following bylines, date and timestamp:
“By Ben Kochman, Craig McCarthy, Vaughn Golden and Katherine Donlevy
Published April 26, 2024, 9:25 p.m. ET”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check searched Google using these details and found an article from New York Post titled, “Harvey Weinstein cooling his heels in special Rikers cell after overturned rape conviction” which carries the same bylines, date and timestamp.
After comparing both the headlines, Soch Fact Check ascertained that there are differences in style and formatting. In the screenshot of the article shared on X, the headline is entirely in uppercase letters, the font doesn’t match the one typically used on the New York Post website, and it doesn’t include the red hyperlinks usually seen in NYPost.com articles which suggests that the image has been altered.
An advanced Google search did not yield any such article published on the New York Post’s website in April, confirming that the publication did not report on any such story recently. We also searched the publication’s website with the key term, “Congress to vote on bill to criminalise questioning the events surrounding 9/11” but did not find the article.
Additionally, Soch Fact Check could not find any other credible media outlets reporting on such a bill either.
The viral screenshot also contains an image showing the explosion at the World Trade Centre. A reverse image search led us to an image by Getty Images, created in 2001, which has been credited to photographer Spencer Platt. The image is accompanied by the caption, “A fiery blasts rocks the World Trade Center after being hit by two planes September 11, 2001 in New York City.” Both the images are identical.
The New York Post article mentioned in the viral post also states that the proposed legislation by the US Congress entails fines of up to $10,000 and five years of imprisonment for those who challenge the official narrative. However, currently there is no evidence of Congress passing a bill which penalises the questioning of 9/11 events. The US House of Representatives recently voted on an antisemitism awareness bill on 1 May, which received similar criticism for its suppression of free speech. But even this bill does not mention 9/11.
The claim was also debunked by Reuters, AP and AFP.
Virality:
The claim was posted here, here, here, here and here on X.
The tweet by @ataur gained significant traction with 233,500 views, 1,300 likes and 524 reposts.
The viral screenshot was also shared on Facebook here, here, here and here.
Conclusion: A fake viral screenshot claims that the New York Post published an article reporting that the US Congress will vote on a bill to criminalise questioning the events surrounding the 11 September 2001 attacks. The bylines, date, and timestamp in the screenshot match a New York Post article which was originally about Harvey Weinstein. The publication has not reported on any such bill, and there is no evidence to suggest that the US Congress has passed any such bill.
Background image in cover photo: Joshua Hoehne
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