Social media users are sharing a screenshot of a fabricated article claiming to show a man convicted of vandalizing the Georgia Guidestones. However, the man pictured is a YouTuber and there is no evidence of conviction.
Examples can be seen (here ) and (here ).
The headline seen in the posts reads: “Schizophrenic man convicted over blowing up the Georgia Guidestones. ‘No need to thank me, a small Monero donation is enough.’
The comments on the posts read: “Court moved that fast? Damn” and “Amazing, it took a week to catch the guy, meanwhile everyone who visited Epstein Island remains free and anonymous.”
The screenshot claims that it was written “by Natasha Anderson for Dailymail.com and Associated Press.” There are similar bylines by the same writer and Associated Press on the Dailymail.co.uk website (example here ).
However, no such article exists on the website of either publication. (here.
A Google search of the headline (here) only reveals results from meme pages.
The man in the photograph shown in the posts is Youtuber Luke Smith (here ) and “monero” refers to an anonymous digital currency (here.)
The court sketch seen in the post is from 2020 and shows former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte on trial when he was found guilty of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, as reported (here , here and here ).
The Georgia Guidestones, erected in 1980 in the U.S. state of Georgia, was engraved with a message in 12 languages calling for the preservation of humankind by limiting the world’s population to fewer than a half-billion people to live “in perpetual balance with nature,” according to official translations of the text (here ) .
The monument’s message has long drawn opposition from critics who tied it to far-right conspiracies or religious blasphemy. Reuters previously debunked inaccurate claims about it (here , here )
The peculiar granite monument that some have dubbed “America’s Stonehenge” but a conservative politician condemned as “Satanic” was torn down on July 6, 2022 by authorities in rural Georgia hours after it was heavily damaged in a bombing by vandals. (here )
Footage showing the explosion can be seen (here ).
VERDICT
Satire. The screenshot does not show an actual Daily Mail or Associated Press article about a man who vandalized the Georgia Guidestones.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
