On social media, false information about former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is common. A recent statement ascribed to the activist is a prime example of this.
“Colin Kaepernick: ‘Will go to Russia if not respected properly in the United States,'” read a post on September 13. As part of Meta’s effort to combat misinformation and misleading news on its News Feed, this post was flagged. (See our resources for additional details regarding our collaboration with Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.)
PolitiFact’s questions about the post were not immediately answered by a representative for Kaepernick, but it was found that the remark came from a self-described satirical website.
SpaceX Fanclub posted on Facebook on September 10 that “nothing on this page is real,” stating that “Colin Kaepernick says he’ll leave for Russia if he doesn’t receive the respect he deserves in the U.S. – This is SATIRE”.
We looked for reliable proof that Kaepernick made such a comment, such news reports or statements he made in public, but we couldn’t find any.
It is also improbable that Kaepernick will become a Russian expatriate. Kaepernick, who started sitting or kneeling during pregame national anthems in 2016 to protest police violence against Black Americans, was the subject of a Russian disinformation effort, according to a 2019 U.S. Senate study. He and the NFL came to an agreement in 2019 over a grievance alleging that the league and team owners conspired to keep him out of football.
We evaluate the assertion that Kaepernick said he would defect to Russia from the United States as untrue.
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