Rapper and businessman P. Diddy (or Puff Daddy), whose real name is Sean John Combs, has been in the sights of American justice for several months. Accused of around ten rapes and sexual assaults, he has been incarcerated since his arrest in New York on Monday September 16.
An influential figure in the rap world and more generally in the music industry, he is indicted for sex trafficking and extortion. The extent of the facts with which he is accused provokes numerous reactions and discussions on social networks, some of which relate to conspiracy theories.
Fake photo, hasty conclusions… We take a look at the main misinformation surrounding the affair.
Stars who delete their accounts because they have something to reproach themselves for?
Among the main rumors circulating on social networks, we find that several American celebrities, such as Pink, Michelle and Barack Obama or even Usher have deleted their social networks. Which would suggest that they would have something to reproach themselves for in the various cases with which P. Diddy is accused.
“They’re all going to fall. Pink and Usher immediately deleted their histories following Pink Diddy’s arrest,” says a publication on X (formerly Twitter), for example. This rumor is also very popular internationally, and is relayed by many English-speaking accounts.
But what is it really? In the case of the singer Pink, it is true that her account is almost empty, with the exception of two retweets dating from 2016 and 2017. But this is nothing new. The singer announced that she was leaving the platform last February, as reported for example in this article from Daily Mail.
Faced with the scale of the rumor, the singer even chose to speak out by explaining on Instagram: “I don’t know why I made the headlines this week, but I deleted my Twitter account on February 6! There is no truth to the rumors being spread this week, and although I have met some people in passing, I am not associated with any of the people mentioned. »
Concerning the Obama couple, these assertions are based on the fact that the X account “The office of Michelle and Barack Obama” is private and has only two subscribers and two subscriptions. However, since its creation in April 2023, the account has always been private. We can see this via screenshots taken at the time, notably in this BFMTV article.
As for Usher, who during his adolescence at one time rubbed shoulders with P. Diddy, the latter has not deleted his account either, despite what many Internet users claim. His X account is still online, but was temporarily inaccessible late last week. The latter explained via a publication that he had been “hacked”.
A photo that shows bottles of baby oil at P. Diddy’s homes?
Based on an indictment made public last week, several media reported that more than “1,000 bottles” of baby oil and lubricant were found during searches of the artist’s various homes.
If this element is a priori proven, it is illustrated on social networks by an image which is much less so. Showing at first glance a luxurious bathroom with gilding and imposing mirrors, as well as numerous translucent bottles, the image was actually generated by artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, the latter is taken from a video of a few seconds, the artificial nature of which appears even more clearly (online here for example). Several inconsistent elements in the images make this possible. In particular the fact that a toilet is placed under a sink, the imprecision of the bodies of certain police officers who are in the background, or the reflections in the mirror which do not correspond to the opposite wall.
The mayor of New York indicted for his participation in the affair?
Eric Addams, Democratic mayor of New York since 2022, was recently indicted for corruption by the Manhattan federal prosecutor, as revealed by New York Times Wednesday. He is notably accused of having received bribes for years, in exchange for favoring the construction of a skyscraper intended for Turkey’s mission to the UN and its consulate general.
However, these legal disputes are associated with the P. Diddy affair, and many Internet users believe that the latter would have been accused of complicity. However, these two cases have nothing to do with each other.
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A photo is circulating in particular to illustrate (wrongly) this affair, showing Eric Adams alongside Puff Daddy. It dates from September 15, 2023, when the mayor handed over the “keys to the city” to the rapper, as reported at the time The Independant. A sign of recognition towards someone who had not yet been prosecuted for assault or rape.
