No, John Fetterman doesn’t have a body double

What do Sen. John Fetterman and Avril Lavigne have in common? A body double conspiracy theory, at the very least.

Over the weekend, new baseless misinformation that the Pennsylvania Democrat has been replaced with a lookalike began circulating on social media. He hasn’t. The rumor’s origins are unclear, but QAnon supporters and dozens of conservative commentators boosted the claims, earning the theory millions of views on Twitter.

The conspiracy theories stem from a side-by-side comparison of two photos of Fetterman that were taken nine months apart.

In a tweet seen over 10 million times, the popular right-wing troll account Catturd — reportedly a “VIP” account that gets boosted visibility on the platform — falsely wrote that, “In only 3 weeks, John Fetterman got a total head replacement.” While the tweet suggested the photos couldn’t possibly be of the same person, they were both Fetterman. One is a headshot from February Fetterman shared on Twitter. The other was taken in May 2022 as he was leaving Lancaster Hospital after having a stroke.

Fetterman’s health was a common talking point from his GOP opponent, Mehmet Oz, and other Republicans on the campaign trail. Five weeks ago, he checked himself into the Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment for clinical depression, which doctors say is common among stroke survivors.

The false claims that Fetterman has a body double began circulating around the same time as reports that he was getting ready to leave the Maryland hospital and return to the Senate.

» READ MORE: John Fetterman will return to the Senate April 17 after treatment for depression

Fetterman’s team has not publicly addressed the body double claims and did not respond to a request for comment. In an op-ed published in Elle on Friday morning, Gisele Fetterman wrote about the vicious attacks she and her husband received after he announced he was checking into treatment.

“John suffered a stroke during his Senate campaign, so I already knew how cruel people could be about judging someone’s health and using it as a weapon,” she wrote. “But I’ll admit, I was surprised to find that this time the vast majority of the harassment wasn’t directed toward John — but at me.”

This isn’t the first time QAnon and right-wing figures have falsely cried “dupe.”

Earlier this year, anti-vaxxers baselessly claimed that NFL safety Damar Hamlin’s on-field collapse resulted in his death and he had been replaced by a body double in an elaborate cover-up. Before that, QAnon supporters said that Donald Trump had sent a body double to speak to supporters at a rally in Arizona. Some even speculated that it was really John F. Kennedy disguised as Trump. Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, and Volodymyr Zelensky have also been the subjects of body double conspiracy theories.

But beyond extremism, the scrutiny also raises concerns surrounding media literacy, experts say.

Last week, fake images of Donald Trump being arrested, made by artificial intelligence art generators, were spread by some as real-life news. Since then, a fake photo of Pope Francis wearing a Balenciaga puffer coat also made the rounds.

» READ MORE: Fake photos of Trump’s arrest spread across social media. They were AI generated.

As reported by AFP, a Google reverse image search shows the May 2022 photo of Fetterman was originally credited to his campaign staff. Gisele Fetterman also posted a video from that day featuring her husband in the same outfit. The facial recognition search engine PimEyes matched both photos fueling the conspiracy theory as Fetterman. As illustrated by a Pennsylvania State University interactive photography guide, the focal length a camera’s lens uses can also alter a subject’s appearance and face shape.

Alex Mahadevan, the director of Mediawise, tweeted about the difficulties in teaching digital media literacy.

“Big stories this weekend were AI Balenciaga Pope ... and Fetterman body double conspiracy,” he wrote. “How do we effectively teach people to be skeptical of images — without going overboard?”