February is Black History Month, which was first officially recognized by the U.S. government in 1976, when then-President Gerald Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Is President Joe Biden rewriting Black history?
“Official — Joe Biden changes the name of Black History Month!” reads the text over an image of Biden’s face in a Feb. 17 Instagram post.
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The video in the post appears to show Biden talking, but listen long enough and it becomes clear that though the voice sounds like the president’s, the words aren’t his.
“Black History Month will be changed to the more suitable name of Real N—– February. The month will be filled with education of crucial Black leaders whom helped build this nation such as Ice Spice or 6ix9ine.”
The clip in the post comes from a September 2022 interview Biden gave to CBS’ “60 Minutes.” He didn’t mention Black History Month.
These kinds of fake clips of the president are becoming more common.
“Lately virtual Biden has been spouting off — rather fluently — on a number of topics about which the president wouldn’t and/or shouldn’t have strong opinions,” Rolling Stone magazine reported. “It’s all thanks to the advent of powerful AI tools for voice cloning.”
We rate claims that Biden changed the name of Black History Month False.
