WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Robert Irwin has refused to wear a LGBTQI pin at a Sydney Gala and has spoken out against "forced symbolism".
OUR VERDICT
False. Irwin is currently in the United States, not Sydney, and the quotes attributed to him are fabricated.
AAP FACTCHECK - Robert Irwin did not refuse to wear an LGBTQI pin at a Sydney environmental gala in a stand against "forced symbolism", despite claims going viral on social media.
The 21-year-old Australian wildlife conservationist is not living in Sydney at the moment; he is temporarily living in the US to participate in the Dancing With the Stars TV contest.
Irwin - the son of the late Crocodile Hunter legend Steve Irwin - has also never called the prospect of wearing an LGBTQI pin "forced symbolism".
The false claims have been spreading across Facebook in recent days, racking up more than four million views and hundreds of comments from users who have fallen for the deception.
The post appears to have originated from an engagement bait page that frequently uses AI-generated content to make false claims about the Irwin family to drive clicks.
The post has been widely reshared across social media.
"Robert Irwin sent ripples through the world last night when, just minutes before a highly publicized environmental gala in Sydney, he refused to wear a symbolic rainbow pin," the posts claim.
"Irwin spoke out passionately, delivering a heartfelt but fiery statement against what he described as 'forced symbolism'."
The posts include two photos of Irwin spliced next to each other with a rainbow flag edited in front of them with a black 'X' mark on it.
There is no record of an environmental gala in Sydney in recent days and even if there was, Irwin is not currently in Australia.
He has temporarily relocated to the US to participate in Dancing With the Stars, as recent photos from his Instagram page show.
There is also no record that Irwin has ever decried "forced symbolism" in relation to the prospect of wearing a rainbow pin.
He has previously declared himself to be an "ally of the LGBTQIA+ community" in a post on his Instagram page from 2020.
Irwin and his family have become frequent targets of misinformation and disinformation on social media, particularly from apparent engagement bait pages.
As experts have previously told AAP FactCheck, these pages post false claims about celebrities - often generated by AI - to drive clicks to external websites, which can be laden with ads, scams and viruses.
AAP FactCheck recently debunked other false claims targeting Bindi Irwin, which also used AI-generated content.
Sometimes the claims are reshared by pages that are not dedicated to engagement bait but appear to believe the posts and reshare them, widening their reach.
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