Boris Johnson's Congratulations To Biden Also Contains A Message For Trump
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s congratulatory message to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris went viral on Tuesday after eagle-eyed Twitter users spotted that Johnson’s message appeared to be a hasty image edit that still contained traces of President Donald Trump’s name.
Congratulations @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris pic.twitter.com/xrpE99W4c4
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 7, 2020
Johnson first tweeted congratulations to Biden and Harris on Saturday, after major media networks called the presidential race in favor of the Democratic candidates. While other world leaders opted to voice their applause via Twitter’s usual 280-character limit, Johnson tweeted out an image that had an unusual blunder hidden inside it.
HuffPost can confirm what Twitter users highlighted: If the image that Johnson tweeted out is downloaded, opened in a photo editing program such as Photoshop or Lightroom, and tweaked with adjusted contrast and exposure levels, the words “Trump,” “second term” and “the future” in a smaller font are faintly visible.
This indicates that the congratulatory message to Biden was layered atop what appears to be a longer congratulatory message to Trump that had not been fully deleted.
A number of Twitter users tested the theory out for themselves, expressing bafflement that Downing Street had committed such a bizarre photo editing screw-up.
somewhat unbelievably, there really is a hidden message congratulating Trump just about visible underneath the graphic Boris Johnson tweeted congratulating Biden on his win. I have no idea why Downing Street just didn't start a new image, or why they are so bad at Photoshop pic.twitter.com/RLY0SV0680
— Matthew Champion (@matthewchampion) November 10, 2020
Woooow... Boris Johnson's congratulatory message to Joe Biden was an unfinished photoshop of one that originally congratulated Trump.
If you download the image, lighten it and increase contrast, part of the original text is revealed.
H/t @GuidoFawkes pic.twitter.com/irbBsPOisk— Naomi O'Leary (@NaomiOhReally) November 10, 2020
This is completely nuts: there's the trace of a message for Trump buried underneath Boris Johnson's tweeted congratulatory message to Biden.
Highlighted by @GuidoFawkes, I just did some super basic manipulation on my phone and ... well ... they're not wrong! pic.twitter.com/XPzg0bEWXM— Tom Barton (@tombarton) November 10, 2020
Clearer when adjusted through lightroom pic.twitter.com/l6yKp2tnVi
— Jenn 🌍😊 (@PhotoJennBo) November 10, 2020
P.s. If you're wondering why letters appear quite distorted, this is because they used an image that was already compressed, to create the second image. They took a JPG, not original adjustment document, erased the obvious lettering and left the compression artefacts by mistake.
— Jenn 🌍😊 (@PhotoJennBo) November 10, 2020
I did a bit more adjustment to colour contrast all the artifacts on the layer the old text is on, to make them all more obvious, in case anyone still having trouble seeing the full text. pic.twitter.com/MqmKq8bZxG
— Jenn 🌍😊 (@PhotoJennBo) November 10, 2020
+UPDATE+
Boris Johnson’s congratulatory message to Joe Biden..
...still contained Donald Trump’s name from an earlier message they’d prepared assuming Trump had won. pic.twitter.com/gVMNS2zCqq— Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 (@nicktolhurst) November 10, 2020
If you invert the image in photoshop you get the message even more clearly. pic.twitter.com/EkKqkzAmrd
— Anna Dillon (@Anna_Dillon) November 10, 2020
A Downing Street spokesperson addressed the odd graphical gaffe to the BBC, blaming it on a “technical” issue.
“As you’d expect, two statements were prepared in advance for the outcome of this closely contested election,” the spokesperson said. “A technical error meant that parts of the alternative message were embedded in the background of the graphic.”
Despite the conspiratorial-like nature of the error, Boris Johnson ― a Trump ally who was described by the president himself as “Britain Trump” ― called Biden on Tuesday, stating that he looks forward to working with the president-elect’s administration come January.
Biden has notably been far less positive toward Brexit than either Johnson or Trump, and has channeled his heritage when addressing the Good Friday Agreement, stressing that the agreement that ended violence between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland must not become a “casualty of Brexit.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.