No, the Guardian did not publish a headline saying afternoon tea is ‘steeped in racism’

A screenshot being shared on Facebook appears to show a Guardian opinion piece written by lawyer Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu with the headline: “Afternoon Tea is steeped in racism and white privilege. It should be banned.” But no such article exists.

Posts on social media have shared the screenshot with captions including: “SO Tea is racist ....who knew” and “Wow now there attacking afternoon tea how insecure are people [sic].” 

The fake screenshot claims the article was written by Dr Mos-Shogbamimu, who is a lawyer, author and activist. But she confirmed she did not write the article and said in a post from her verified Facebook profile: “I didn’t say nor do I think this.” 

Dr Mos-Shogbamimu has previously spoken to the Guardian, but she does not have an author page on the publication’s website.

There are other clues that this is not a genuine article. While the format of the image resembles the Guardian’s website—using similar typography, colours and layout—the logo actually says ‘Grauniad’ rather than ‘Guardian’. This anagram is a deliberate misspelling that is sometimes used as a nickname for the publication.

This is not the first time Full Fact has written about screenshots of fake Guardian headlines, including another allegedly written by Dr Mos-Shogbamimu, as well as those appearing to be by Sir Keir Starmer and comedian Eddie Izzard. 

We’ve also seen other examples of both entirely fake and altered content appearing to have been published by the BBC, The Mirror, Telegraph, Haaretz, Times of Israel, USA Today and Euronews. 

Image courtesy of Bernd Schwabe