The AFP News Agency published a story on Tuesday detailing the Trump administration’s alleged mass detaining of tens of thousands of migrant children in in immigration facilities – only to retract their “story” after it turned out the numbers were actually from 2015.
Under the Obama administration.
The original AFP story, which was tweeted out to the outlet’s 1.7 million followers, claimed that roughly 100,000 migrant children were currently being held in U.S. detention centers, per the U.N. The article was blasted out with a “#Breaking” add-on, implying that this was brand new information damning to the Trump administration, which has been criticized by liberals for supposed maltreatment of illegal aliens and their children at the border.
#BREAKING More than 100,000 children in migration-related US detention: UN pic.twitter.com/67PEWc4KFi
— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 18, 2019
Unsurprisingly, the AFP’s story was immediately picked up and re-tweeted by a slew of progressives before readers with actual brain cells pointed out that the alleged “breaking” report actually stemmed back to 2015, when the Obama administration was – oh so shockingly – also detaining migrant children in federal facilities.
The AFP quickly retracted their story, explaining, “the author of the report has clarified that his figures do not represent the number of children currently in migration-related US detention, but the total number of children in migration-related US detention in 2015.”
AFP is withdrawing this story.
— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 19, 2019
The author of the report has clarified that his figures do not represent the number of children currently in migration-related US detention, but the total number of children in migration-related US detention in 2015.
We will delete the story. https://t.co/p30UjEWl7u
Despite the AFP’s retraction, many Twitter users were quick to point out that the outlet could have simply let their story stand while clarifying that the report was from 2015, accusing the outlet of deleting the entire thing because it could no longer be used to make Trump look bad.
We’re deleting the story because how it makes the last president look.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) November 19, 2019
Thankfully, at least one user had the presence of mind to screen shot the entire story so everyone can remember exactly how partisan the AFP’s non-story actually was.
— Ryan (@chasinghumility) November 19, 2019
Fortunately for APF, they at least admitted the mistake.
Unforunately for AFP, the Internet is forever.