Gamergate supporters blamed for 'Paris terrorist' fake image of innocent Sikh journalist Veerender Jubbal

The photoshopped image of a Sikh man, which was incorrectly labelled as a 'selfie' taken by one of the Paris attackers and shared widely online, was created and spread by supporters of the 'Gamergate' movement, it has been claimed.

Canadian journalist Veerender Jubbal was made a victim after an innocent selfie he took with his iPad in front of a mirror was edited to make him look like a terrorist - an explosive sucide vest was digitally added to his body, and the iPad he was holding was edited to look like a Quran.

The photoshopped hoax image was fairly low quality, and even included an obviously fake sex toy in the background - but that didn't stop the image circulating widely on social media, with many believing that he was one of the people responsible for Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris.

The image was even reproduced on mainstream news networks, with at least two Spanish news sources publishing the fake image and the hoax backstory.

Spanish daily paper La Razon even used an image of Jubbal's face on its front cover, labelling him as "one of the terrorists" who were responsible for the deaths of 129 people.

Isis supporters themselves were also taken in by the hoax, with a number of Isis-supporting social media profiles falsely claiming the innocent Jubbal was a terrorist who had converted to Islam.

Jubbal, a writer and journalist, has been a vocal critic of the Gamergate movement, which claims to campaign for ethics in gaming journalism but has been accused of endlessly harassing its critics online.

After the images began to circulate, Jubbal suggested on Twitter that Gamergate supporters were responsible - a claim which has been backed up by a recent report from Vice, who found that the photoshopped image was first tweeted by Gamergate supporters.

Jubbal posted the original image on 4 August this year. A few days later, a user called Blacktric reposted the image with a mocking comment.

After this was posted, two other users, one of them using the handle 'Sad Person', discussed altering the selfie to add a Quran and sucide vest.

This photoshopped image was then published by Sad Person on 12 August, and was later reposted by Blacktric in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks, with the caption: "One of the Paris suicide bombers' photo's been released. He posted the photo on Twitter shortly before the attack."

Gamergate has tried to distance itself from Blacktric since the image began to circulate, and Blacktric and Sad Person's accounts have since been deleted.

But their claims are contradicted by various posts from a user with the same name on Gamergate-focused Reddit forums, conversations between Blacktric and other Gamergate supporters on Twitter, and one tweet in which he refers to Gamergate as "us".

Since the hoax was revealed, many supporters of Gamergate on Twitter, Reddit and in the media have reacted with glee to the trolling of their opponent.

Jubbal has since released a statement on the hoax through the Sikh Coalition, and American Sikh advocacy group.

In it, he says: "The dark horror of violence in Paris and Beirut last week is mourned by 25 million Sikhs and over 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide"

"I ask that the media outlets that ran my image immediately retract my photo and apologise, but also take the time to learn and educate their readers about the Sikh faith, the fifth largest religion in the world."

"When we paint entire faiths and communities with the same brushstroke, we further give terrorists exactly what they want. We're strongest in the face of terror and bigotry when we stand together."

"This false image is an opportunity for all of us to hopefully grow together in our shared understanding for one another."