In a bizarre article claiming American conservatives are weaponizing plagiarism against colleges, The Associated Press also randomly re-wrote history by falsely claiming white colonists took up the practice of scalping Native Americans.
First, the Community Notes feature of 𝕏 pointed out Harvard President Claudine Gay was ousted from her position because she DID commit plagiarism and that doing so violated the university’s rules.
After the entire premise of the article was essentially exposed as fraudulent by Community Notes, many social media users also pointed out the strange remark about scalping.
Discussing conservative activist Christopher Rufo celebrated the ousting of Gay online by writing “scalped,” which is commonly used to express a victory over a political opponent, AP claimed he invoked violence.
The outlet then alleged scalping was “a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans,” before later adding that “some tribes” also scalped their enemies.
AP wrote, “Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who helped orchestrate the effort against Gay, celebrated her departure as a win in his campaign against elite institutions of higher education. On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote ‘SCALPED,’ as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans and also used by some tribes against their enemies.”
Hellbound and Down 