Is that your opinion, or have you seen an official statement from Clemson or some other credible source claiming it is a fake? If the latter, please provide the link, as that sort of information should be disseminated with at least as much enthusiasm as any "fake troll" posts out there.
On my end, I did find a Media Release (
link) from Clemson specifically calling the alleged Blackmon post a "social media 'troll'" account, but nothing similar for the Hobson FB post. I purposely did not include a link to the Blackmon post because I did not want to continue spreading a post that has already been objectively determined to be a fake, but suffice to say it is a different photograph with a white male with his knee on the neck of another white male laying prone, and some anti BLM language.
There may be some confusion out there (even more than usual) because these two postings happened somewhat close in time, and there was also (apparently) a third post by a Clemson student via IG Story (
link here; the IG Story student was exonerated). Additionally, local news outlets (the previous link, as well as this
link) indicate Clemson investigated these social media posts, resulting in the previously-listed student exoneration (and the Blackmon post being deemed a fake), and a response from Clemson that the other student (later identified by Clemson's Twitter account as "Austin") is no longer enrolled.
Evidence (especially circumstantial evidence) is rarely ever definitive, but if you look at the way Clemson is handling these two situation, it suggests the one is much more likely to be credible than the others. Whereas Clemson affirmatively stated the Blackmon post was a fake about 7 weeks ago with an official media release (link above), Clemson has repeatedly responded to the Austin Hobson situation by stating, "Federal student privacy laws limit what details we can share, but we can confirm that Austin is no longer enrolled at the university." (
link to Clemson Twitter response). So what we know for certain is: (1) Hobson was enrolled at Clemson; (2) a FB post (allegedly from his FB account) of someone purporting to be him in front of a racist image was circulated; (3) Clemson investigated the post; and (4) Hobson is no longer enrolled at Clemson.
Of course, you are free to arrive at your own conclusion, but those are the pertinent facts as have been reported (at least that I could find). Again, if you have found something different, please share. Getting at the truth can be difficult in an age where the dissemination of "information" has greatly outpaced our ability to determine its veracity.
