Seven-year-old Bana Alabed has been called the “Anne Frank of the Syrian War,” and has been tweeting out the horrors of her life in East Allepo for the last year. Bana and her family were able to escape the conflict in December, and since have become international spokespeople against the war. Alabed has been highly critical of Donald Trump, especially of his restrictions on refugees traveling to the U.S.
But on Tuesday the accounts of both Bana Alabed and her mother, Fatemah Alabed, were strangely gone.
These screenshots are floating around Twitter, with some claiming they are the last tweets Bana made, although that is not verified.
In the screenshot, which suggests that tweet was from Tuesday, she claims the picture is of her younger sister, but apparently the picture was of an unrelated girl from 2015. Bana does not even have a sister.
The next tweet is a rebuttal to people accusing her of lying, claiming all girls are her sister. The account was deleted soon after.
There has been much speculation online over whether or not Bana’s account is real. Some say the tweets are too sophisticated for a 7-year-old and others doubt the girl was in Syria at all. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed the account is a Western propaganda operation.
An extensive investigation into the veracity of Bana’s account was able to prove that the pictures of the girl’s neighborhood in East Allepo were legit, and speculated that most of the tweets were probably just written by her mother, who had a much greater grasp of the English language.
Some have also speculated the account is run by multiple people other, and that is how a mistake like this could be made.
Others simple believe Bana and her mother were harassed off Twitter by trolls who denied the veracity of the account.
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