Harvard University did not issue a public apology for inviting former vice president Leni Robredo and celebrity Kim Kardashian as lecturers. This story is satirical, which had some netizens duped into thinking or passing off as real.
On Feb. 8, a Twitter user posted a screenshot of a report, supposedly “hidden” by “pinklawans.” The story bore the headline, “Harvard Apologizes For Inviting Leni Robredo, Kim Kardashian.”
The article claims that the institution said sorry to “students, alumni and the worldwide academic community” after drawing criticism for the move. It also used photos of Robredo delivering a lecture at Harvard Kennedy School in October 2022 and a screenshot of a Fox Business article on Kardashian’s talk at Harvard Business School in January.
This is not true. Harvard did not release such an apology. The screenshot shows a satirical article published by The Adobo Chronicles on Jan. 22.
The Adobo Chronicles’ Facebook (FB) page has a satire/parody label, and its website’s About page says it is a source for “up-to-date, unbelievable news.”
The Fox Business article did not discuss any apology from Harvard either. It only talked about netizens criticizing Kardashian for giving a lecture about her shapewear line at Harvard Business School on Jan. 21.
The satire resurfaced this month, the day Robredo and her supporters recalled the anniversary of her proclamation rally for the 2022 elections.
VERA Files Fact Check previously debunked other false information surrounding Robredo’s Hauser Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School last year. (Read related story Robredo NOT kicked out from Harvard)
The screenshot posted by Twitter user @todongpnoy (created on Sept. 2019) has 180 retweets, 225 quote tweets, 539 likes and 265,600 views as of writing. The FB page Ei Hi, I am Shanwein (Aug. 14, 2022) also uploaded the same photo. Several netizens circulated the screenshot and links to The Adobo Chronicles’ (July 2, 2013) original post on Twitter and FB.
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