Amidst accusations that the troubled pop star Justin Bieber threw out an Argentinian fan's gift of her country's flag back in her face, some people are still out there searching for the truth.
I am telling their story.
In early May of 2016, Bieber was in New York City to play two shows at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, host a pop up shop and, if rumors are to be believed, ruin lives.
It should be noted that @thinkingomez is a fan account dedicated to Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift — not exactly the most sympathetic source for Bieber news. The account also frequently re-shares video without listing sources.
The Daily Mail reported further details of the incident back on on May 6 — an account of the incident they say is directly from the 15-year-old fan who gave Bieber the discarded item, which they claim is an Argentinian flag.
I am in Manhattan because it's my birthday and I found out Justin is coming, so I bought a ticket. Yesterday I was at the hotel at 10am and I stayed for hours outside waiting.
When he was going out, guards told us to back off, so I grabbed the flag and threw it at him. Of course it was not my intention for it to fall close to his face, so I apologized a thousand times. He looked at me with the face of a p****, grabbed the flag, threw it on the pavement and shut the window. I'm 15 and he could have treated me better since I apologized and he could hear it.
Can we trust that these are actually the words of this "unnamed Argentinian teenager" on Facebook?
It is also worth noting that Portuguese is not a language commonly spoken in Argentina, despite its proximity to Brazil, so @thinkingomez probably is not directly involved if this theory is to be believed.
The fact that Bieber is accused of discarding an Argentinian flag is significant. The last time he toured Argentina, it was a train wreck. Among other discretions, Bieber got in trouble for kicking Argentinian flags off stage, an act which is punishable by up to four years in prison.
On May 16, Bieber had to cancel shows in Argentina because he is banned from the country. Charges against him for allegedly ordering bodyguards to attack paparazzi on his behalf still haven't been dropped.
I will admit that I brushed off the thrown gift story when it first came to me via my Justin Bieber google alert and various Justin Bieber fan accounts I follow. It's hard to tell what Bieber is throwing out from the video — though it does look very much like the flag in question — and does not include footage of Bieber acquiring the object.
Shady Music Facts, a Twitter account with just shy of 200,000 followers shared the video on May 23, and the story gained traction.
That's when the story got personal. A Twitter account — @TheLegalities — with an avatar of Robin Williams seemed to spring up with the sole mission of making that I, Mashable's Chief Bieber Correspondent, knew the truth about Flag-gate.
All nine of the account's tweets are directed at me to ensure I do the right thing and make sure I'm reporting responsibly.
As the tweets came in quick succession on Monday evening, I was rapt. I even stopped live-tweeting the Season Premiere of The Bachelorette.
@TheLegalities goes on to accuse Shady Music News, an account with "shady" in its name, of being shady and having an anti-Biebs bias.
@TheLegalities also tipped me off to a video that shows a similar incident from another angle that shows Bieber rolling down his window to say hello to the fans.
You can clearly see the fan reaching into Bieber's car to hand him gifts despite a body guard's protest. It's pretty scary. That day, Bieber instigated his no photos policy.
So, yeah, even if Bieber threw out an Argentinian flag, it's probably not a political act or even a diss to the fan that gave it to him. It's unlikely that, in those few seconds, Bieber even realized what he was holding, only that he felt threatened by the hands of strangers entering his vehicle. Do you really think Bieber even remembers what the Argentinian flag looks like?
Back to Robin Williams — I knew the significance of @TheLegalities' avatar immediately.
Williams guest starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 9, Episode 17: "Authority." He played a man who convinces people to commit violent crimes by posing as a cop. He goes on to stage a flash mob in Grand Central Station, which he uses to lure Benson into his trap so he can kidnap her.
The point is, don't believe everything you're told. Find out the facts and make your own conclusions. WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!
After a second Flag-gate Truther contacted me, in addition to a couple other Bieber journalists and a random man who was accidentally caught in the crossfire, I knew I couldn't ignore this story any longer.
Bieber's just trying his best to avoid a mental breakdown.
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