Fact check: Image claiming to show Bill Murray tweet about social media and depression isn't authentic

McKenzie Sadeghi, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: Image shows a Bill Murray tweet about social media causing depression

From quotes about the U.S. government to advice on teaching kids about taxes, actor and comedian Bill Murray has been repeatedly misattributed over the years by social media users.

Now, a viral Dec. 5 Facebook post purports to show a tweet authored by Murray about social media and depression.

“Social media is training us to compare our lives, instead of appreciating everything we are,” reads a post that appears to show a tweet from a verified account belonging to Murray. “No wonder why everyone is always depressed.”

“Realest post you’ll see all day,” the page captioned the post, which accumulated more than 700 reactions within a day.

The same quote has been attributed to Murray over the years on meme pages, websites, Pinterest and Reddit.

But there is no evidence Murray ever made the comment about social media, and he does not have a Twitter account.

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The Facebook page that shared the post did not return a request for comment.

Tweet is fake

The @BillMurray account seen in the image is a fan page, according to its bio. The New Yorker reported in 2014 that Murray does not have a Twitter account.

USA TODAY did not find any evidence that Murray said social media is training people to compare their lives, however, he has previously spoken about the topic in interviews.

“My only problem with it (social media) is that people now feel they should document their life rather than live it,” Murray told The Guardian in 2018. He went on to explain an instance where he was at a party with a DJ playing, “but you couldn’t dance without people pulling their phone out of their pocket."

PolitiFact debunked the claim in April 2020, finding that the quote appeared online dating to at least January 2015, and it was not attributed to Murray at the time. The outlet also pointed out that there are multiple Murray parody accounts on Twitter and Instagram.

Fact check: False claim that Halyna Hutchins tweeted about having evidence on Hillary Clinton

USA TODAY was unable to reach Murray.

Our rating: Altered

Based on our research, we rate ALTERED an image claiming to show Murray tweeted about social media causing depression. The Twitter account seen in the image is a fan page, and Murray does not have a Twitter account. USA TODAY found no evidence Murray made this comment.

Our fact-check sources:

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Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Fake Bill Murray tweet about social media, depression

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