ALBAWABA - Long-running conspiracy theories about the death of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have been reignited by a picture going viral on social media. Some users are saying that the picture wrongly shows Epstein alive and living in Israel.
The claim has become more popular since the U.S. Justice Department made millions of pages of documents connected to the Epstein investigation public.
A lot of people have shared a picture of a man with a beard and sunglasses who they say looks like Epstein. The captions say that Epstein faked his death in a New York jail in 2019 and was then secretly sent to another country. These are claims that have no basis in real proof.
Document Dump Spreads False Information
These ideas are becoming popular again at the same time that the U.S. Department of Justice recently released more than three million pages of files connected to Epstein. Even though the papers include the names of famous people and a lot of information from investigations, officials have made it clear that their release does not mean that new crimes have been found against people who were not charged before.
Researchers who study misinformation say that the size and complexity of the release have made it easier for false stories to spread online. People on social media have picked out certain details and paired them with unrelated images or anonymous claims. This includes posts that link to supposedly untrue statements shared on fringe sites like 4chan.
Epstein is not likely to be alive.
The US government has said many times that Epstein killed himself in August 2019 while he was waiting to be tried on federal sex trafficking charges. The Department of Justice and the FBI looked into the case many times and found no proof of murder or a fake death. There is no reliable information, travel records, or government paperwork to back up claims that Epstein lived or moved.
Checkers who are looking into the viral picture say that a resemblance is not proof by itself, and that similar pictures have been linked to different people, digital manipulation, or material made by AI. Media experts say that emotionally charged issues like Epstein's case are often used to get people interested and reinforce views that people already have.
Experts Warn of Increasing the Conspiracy
Analysts also warn that some versions of the story have antisemitic undertones and link Epstein's identity or claimed ties to Israel without proof. They say that these kinds of claims are typical of larger online conspiracy groups that see world events as secret plans involving elites who are not in the public eye.
One researcher who studies false information said, "When new documents come out, conspiracy theories often rush to fill in the blanks." "But guesses, pictures taken out of context, and claims made by people who aren't named are not proof."
Warning to Be Careful
People should trust verified sources and government records instead of posts that go viral, say journalists and fact-checking groups. Even though Epstein's crimes and connections are still being looked into, experts stress that making false claims takes attention away from responsibility, misleads people, and feeds harmful stories.
Authorities say that claims that Epstein is still living are not based on facts and that the picture going around the internet today is just another example of a long history of digital false information.
