ALTERED: This photo of Lionel Messi shopping for guns in USA is doctored

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This photo on Facebook supposedly of Argentine footballer Lionel Messi shopping for guns in the United States of America (USA) is ALTERED.

The photo is of the football player in what looks like a supermarket with a trolley full of guns.

The post was shared on 14 July 2023, three days after Inter Miami unveiled Messi as their new player.

But, is the photo authentic?

A Google reverse image search established that the image has been altered as the original photo does not show Messi with guns.

According to Yahoo Sports, the authentic image was taken as Messi shopped at Publix supermarket in Florida. MARCA and Mail Online also published the genuine photo.

A Google search for news on Messi purchasing guns yielded negative results. Nigeria’s FactCheckHub also looked into the photo and found it to have been doctored.

PesaCheck examined a photo on Facebook supposedly of renowned Argentine professional footballer Lionel Messi shopping for guns in the United States of America (USA) and found it to be ALTERED.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Rodgers Omondi and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting chief copy editor Francis Mwaniki.

The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.

PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.

PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.