Internet confuses Sikh man with Paris terrorist after photoshopped image goes viral

A photoshopped image of a Sikh man wearing a suicide bomb vest and holding the Holy Quran took social media by storm on Saturday as people mistook him as one of the Paris attackers.

A wave of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris Friday night claimed by the Islamic State (IS) left 129 dead and scores others injured. Amid all the fear and chaos which gripped the city, an image of a Sikh man stared doing the rounds on social media a day after the attack with many accusing him of being one of the attackers in the Paris massacres.

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The image was also shared on one of the largest, though unofficial, pro-IS channels on Telegram, the same app that the extremist group used to take credit for the attacks in Paris.



On closer examination, however, many social media users began to realize that the image was photoshopped as it contained many features which are not likely for a member of Islamic State group to possess.

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The man himself, Veerender Jubbal, a Canadian tweeted the original bathroom selfie and added that he had never been to Paris.

According to him, the fake image was released by the supporters of GamerGate, a controversial online movement, which he had been fighting with on the internet for a year.

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Undaunted by all the negative attention, Jubbal tweeted on Saturday night that he remains valuable and rad.

However, to Jubbal’s dismay, some media outlets early on Sunday morning began sharing photos of him, with even one of the largest papers in Spain publishing his photo on the front page.

The Italian television channel TG24 also tweeted Jubbal’s image to its 1.98 million followers.

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Further, the photoshopped picture also became a part of a segment on the channel’s website.



European media outlets were not the only feature Jubbal’s image, their Asian counterpoints soon caught on.

Many people have since tweeted in Jubbal's support.

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