False news: The sponsor of Pashinyan's daughter's toy is the LGBT community
Verdict: False news
Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan went to the elections today with his family members, including his 6-year-old daughter Arpi. The child was holding a rainbow-colored toy. Facebook user Irina Danielyan posted a photo of Pashinyan's daughter and commented that it is clear from the rainbow colors that the sponsor of this toy is the LGBT community.
This information is false. Arpi was just holding a Pop It anti-stress toy, which has been very popular among children lately.
Irina Danielyan published the photo and wrote, "What is this, a directive to the LGBT community or an open message to the EU?"
Irina Danielyan’s post is from the conspiracy theory genre. An hour has passed since the photo was published, but it has already been shared 12 times and continues to spread, although some of the users who shared the post have addressed it in a humorous manner.
As already mentioned, the child is holding an anti-stress Pop It toy, consisting of silicone cells. The toy has different colors and has nothing to do with the LGBT symbol. People film advertisements, life hacks, vlogs, and more content about this toy.
The identification of political powers with the LGBT community, by finding various false associations, is not new in the Armenian media field. Recently, Artur Tovmasyan, a supporter of the I Have Honor Alliance, made a similar post. He wrote on Facebook that the flag of the LGBT community was displayed during an event organized in Republic Square on Children's Day, through which the RA Prime Minister was trying to gain the support of that community in the upcoming snap elections.
Media.am and factcheck.ge looked into this news. We found out that it was not an LGBT flag, but simply a rainbow displayed in the animation.
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