And for all that, it seems like someone actually re-staged the original meme for presidential tweeting https://t.co/ktH9W2R8V0
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) July 5, 2017
According to an analysis by BuzzFeed, the CNN–WWE GIF that President Donald Trump tweeted last week was not the same as the one created by HanAssholeSolo, which means CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski outed the wrong guy:
How A Random GIF From Reddit Probably Ended Up On President Trump's Phone https://t.co/9UR0DVcXZi via @BuzzFeedNews pic.twitter.com/sjXX5aPYwk
— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) July 5, 2017
The GIF used by the president and HanAssholeSolo are similar, but there are differences. From BuzzFeed:
As Reddit was celebrating HanAssholeSolo’s victory, one user pointed out that what Trump tweeted wasn’t actually HanAssholeSolo’s GIF.
And:
HanAssholeSolo’s GIF has since been taken down, but screenshots remain and there are some key differences.
The differences are:
First off, what Trump tweeted was a video and has audio. Specifically, it has audio from this 2007 WrestleMania clip.
Also, HanAssholeSolo’s original GIF was shorter, had a different aspect ratio, and had a WWE logo in the corner.
Here’s a screenshot from the video that Trump tweeted. Not even the colors are being processed the same way.
HanAssholeSolo’s GIF has a NTSC aspect ratio, because it was cut directly from a taping of analog Westlemania footage. Trump’s video has an aspect ratio of 16:9.
There’s also the matter of length. In HanAssholeSolo’s original GIF, it goes through the wrestling match once and then, because it’s a GIF, loops itself. The video version doesn’t loop. It has a splice that starts around 12 seconds and then the video starts again.
And according to BuzzFeed, it’s likely the video didn’t come from Reddit at all, but from Facebook:
The problem is that there is a still-unknown third party here who is just as important, if not more important, to this story.
If the question is what is Trump or Trump’s team looking at, then the fact this video is based on a GIF from Reddit only means that whoever made the video version reads /r/The_Donald. Whoever forwarded the video almost certainly didn’t get it off Reddit.
The video most likely came from a far-right Facebook page that routinely scrape /r/The_Donald and 4chan for memes.
In his original article on all of this, Kaczynski did note the differences between the two GIFs and that CNN attempted to search for a different version of the GIF:
Reddit user “HanA**holeSolo” first shared the GIF last Wednesday of Trump pummeling a wrestler with CNN’s logo imposed on his face. CNN could find no earlier instance of the GIF. The GIF was later edited into a video with sound and tweeted by the President on Sunday.
On Reddit, “HanA**holeSolo” took credit for inspiring the tweet. Soon after, “HanA**holeSolo’s” other posts on Reddit, some of which included racist and anti-Semitic imagery, quickly circulated on social media.
Over to you, CNN. What say you now?
***
Related:
‘They’re lying’: CNN statement on #CNNBlackmail ‘reads better in Tony Soprano’s voice’ https://t.co/XZfCYOwIZe
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 5, 2017
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