Emma Watson’s Instagram Account Takeover Does Not Mean That She Has No Approval Over Content Posted
The Claim
An "Anonymous Feminist Collective" has taken over Emma Watson's Instagram account, and her recent post about Palestine did not come from her.
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Emerging story
Social media users are circulating a claim that Emma Watson’s account is run by an “Anonymous Feminist Collective”. Therefore, they added that a recent image supporting Palestine that read “solidarity is a verb” posted on her account was not done by her. The claim came from multiple verified accounts.
Misbar’s Analysis
An investigation by the Misbar team found that the claim to be misleading. Watson's Instagram bio does state that her account has been taken over by an "Anonymous Feminist Collective," as seen below.
Further investigation revealed that the takeover began during the COP26 Climate Change Conference in October/November 2021. Her older bio, which can be found below, explains this.
Watson appears to have extended her temporary takeover for COP26 to use her platform of over 64 million followers for activism. Her approval is almost certain to be given to all of the posts.
Furthermore, upon closer inspection of the account, it is discovered that the majority of posts are signed at the bottom by the person who wrote them, as shown below.
Furthermore, the original Palestinian support post, shown below, is reposted by the @badactivistcollective.
This explains why the original image was taken and reposted by the Bad Activists Collective. Misbar confirmed that the image was posted 33 weeks ago, on 14 May 2021, as seen below.
Watson's Palestine post is not signed by anyone, making it very possible that Watson herself reposted it.
Even if the image was not posted by Watson, it would have her approval because it is consistent with her activism for human rights, gender equality, and climate change, among other causes. Watson is well-known for her unwavering activism. As a result of the findings, the Misbar team confirms that users' claims that Watson did not post or at least approve the post are false.
