Claim:

An image authentically shows a post from the official Burger King account to employees.

Evaluation:

In early December 2024, a rumor circulated online that a screenshot (archived) showed a post from the official Burger King account on Users discussed this image on December 9, 2024, hours after news broke of the arrest of a suspect in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The arrest followed a 911 call from a McDonald’s employee (unnamed by police) in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a customer alerted an employee at the fast food restaurant. Surveillance footage from Dec. 4 showed a person fatally shooting Thompson outside a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan, and authorities later distributed images of a person involved in the killing.

A user on X who posted the image added: ““Luigi Mangione shouldn’t have gone to McDonald’s.” The name referred to the suspect called by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch – 26-year-old Luigi Nicholas Mangione.

The image had 2,400 retweets, 511 quote tweets, and 18,700 likes.

However, the screenshot from Burger King was fake. We found no record of the official restaurant account making such posts. Additionally, we did not locate any of the thousands of users who allegedly retweeted or liked the post and asked in subsequent posts why the account removed the post.

After tech entrepreneur Elon Musk took over the social media platform in 2022, he changed the name Twitter to X. Also the terminology “retweet” and “quote tweet” switched to “repost” and “quote”. The fake screenshot showed the older terminology.

For more details on Mangione’s arrest, we previously reported on a rumor that he had allegedly been arrested used a fake ID to buy food at the McDonald’s restaurant.

Sources