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Analysis
Conspiracy theorists are spreading a picture across social media that they claim shows Katy Perry “grooming” a young Mark Zuckerberg. But the individual seen next to the pop star is not the founder of Facebook.
In numerous posts this month, users cited the picture as evidence that prominent world figures “are selected & groomed at a young age to help facilitate [the] current globalist agenda.”
“A young Katy Perry with an even younger Mark Zuckerberg before either were famous,” one user wrote. “These two didn’t just bump into each other in a back alley & take a selfie. This is not a coincidence.
In another post, a separate Twitter user made similar allegations while highlighting the photo, even going as far as to suggest that the pair had been subject to government mind-control.
The picture was also used in several conspiratorial videos on TikTok, where users similarly claimed that the young boy in the photo was Zuckerberg.
Yet there is just one problem with the claim: Zuckerberg and Perry are very close in age.
Both were born in 1984, with Zuckerberg being 39 years old and Perry being 38 years old. Despite the major discrepancy, conspiracy theorists attempted to explain away the glaring issue by suggesting that Zuckerberg had yet to go through puberty at the time the picture was taken.
“[P[uberty kicks in at different times for girls n boys at that age,” the user said. “[I]t would b hard to make this up imho.”
To be clear, the individual in the photo is not Zuckerberg. Nevertheless, one tweet pushing the conspiratorial claim has been viewed over 4.7 million times.
Despite being entirely illogical, the claim will undoubtedly be used by conspiracy theorists for years to come to suggest that every prominent figure they don’t like is part of a sinister plot against them.
Why it matters
Although allegations regarding the image were rejected by most, a concerning number of users still appeared to believe that Perry and Zuckerberg had been groomed by a global elite.
The incident goes to show that despite our valid concerns regarding AI-generated misinformation, even undoctored photos can still be used to fool many online.
Correction 9am CT, May 22: An earlier version of this story misstated that Zuckerberg and Perry were both 38 years old. Zuckerberg turned 39 a day before this story was published. The story has been updated to reflect this.
Mikael Thalen
Mikael Thalen is a tech and security reporter covering social media, data breaches, hackers, and more.
