A photograph of an Argentinian artist and his son singing at a performance has been misconstrued online. Video from the event shows that Flavio Mendoza was holding a microphone down to his son so that he could sing, but posts online are sharing derogatory comments about them.
A Tweet (here) with more than 1.5 million views at the time of publishing has the caption, “File this under things that make you support capital punishment.”
The publisher of the tweet, conservative talk show host Charlie Kirk, later added as a tweet reply, “UPDATE: Watched the full video. The pic is of a gay Argentinian couple (performers) & their son, and appears to be a bad angle. The child was nervous speaking in front of a crowd and wouldn’t let go of the man’s leg so the mic was lowered to the boy’s face-Leaving up for context.”
Other examples can be seen (here), (here), and (here).
The image appears in reports (here), (here) that say it shows a man called Flavio Mendoza singing with his son.
Reuters was unable to source the photo or video the screenshot online stems from. But a video shared by the Stravaganza show, a large theatrical production, (here) shows the stage from a different angle. Mendoza is holding a microphone down to the height of his son, Dionisio, while the young boy sings. The video shows the performers and the audience, who appear to be cheering and clapping.
Mendoza addressed the photo being shared out of context on his official Twitter account (twitter.com/flaviomendoza).
In a tweet published on Jan. 24, 2023 (here), Mendoza said, “Someone maliciously uploaded a photo of me and my son from a horrible angle and they blocked my Instagram please report any photo or person behind this thank you.”
Representatives for Mendoza did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
VERDICT
Misleading. A photograph of an Argentinian performer with his son has been shared online stripped of context and with derogatory commentary. Video of the event shows the man was holding the microphone to his son’s height while the child was singing.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.