Among the top trends on all popular social media websites currently is Chuck Norris. The legendary martial artist and Hollywood actor became a hot topic of discussion after a picture claiming to show him at the horrific US Capitol riots started circulating on Twitter.
The image, which caused the entire Internet to erupt, is currently being investigated to ascertain whether the man in it is actually Norris or his doppelganger.
The claim
Shared from a Twitter handle @NunesDrag, the picture shows a man with an appearance like Norris standing next to a die-hard supporter of the outgoing US President Donald Trump. "Wait, so are we just not going to mention the fact that Chuck Norris was at the MAGA insurrection?" read the caption of the post which has garnered over 15,000 likes and more than 7,000 retweets.
In the image, the two men can be seen posing near the Capitol building which was attacked by pro-Trump demonstrators to prevent the Congress from confirming Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's victory. As the picture gained more and more traction, social media users believed the claim and slammed Norris left, right and centre.
"Chuck Norris participated in the storming of the capitol... are we ready to stop treating him like a harmless quirky celebrity yet?" wrote one Twitter user while another opined, "Chuck Norris doesn't fight #MAGATerrorists...he joins them." Thousands of other comments echoed a similar sentiment.
Fact-check
As the debate on Norris's participation in the storming of US Capitol raged, a section of Twitter users presented several arguments to prove that the man in the picture is not the popular star.
While some highlighted the fact that Norris has light-coloured eyes, unlike the man in the photo who has dark brown eyes, others pointed out that Norris is 80-years-old and the man in the picture appears much younger.
Furthermore, a user ran the image through a facial-recognition software and the results showed an 85% match, which is certainly not sufficient to proclaim that the man is actually Norris.
Upon further investigating the claim, the fact-checking desk of International Business Times, India, came across another and much clearer picture of the man. The new image virtually confirms that the man in the viral image is not Norris, hence making it safe to say that the presumption is false.
It will be interesting to see whether Norris will issue a statement in this regard.
