By: KDKA-TV News Staff
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The Pittsburgh Penguins have come under fire after allegedly shooting masks on fans’ faces during the team’s first fan game in nearly a year.
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Tuesday night’s game marked the first time fans have been allowed to enter the PPG Paints Arena when they hosted the Philadelphia Flyers.
Mask mandates and limited capacity efforts have been introduced.
But it was a post on Twitter following the game that social media has in its arms.
On Wednesday, the team posted a photo of fans in the stands saying, “Thank you for the continued support from Penguins fans. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow night. “
We just had to say this again …
Thanks for the continued support, Penguins fans.
We can’t wait to see you tomorrow night. pic.twitter.com/f3KGjhHWR0
– Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 4, 2021
It didn’t take long for social media investigators to discover that the photo the Penguins posted may have been manipulated.
… Three people in that photo photoshopped their masks at https://t.co/WL961w1bwQ pic.twitter.com/pzMGeGHLG7
– Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) March 4, 2021
In the original Getty Images photo, one of the fans was not wearing a mask and others were not wearing it properly.
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The version the Penguins posted to Twitter showed fans all wearing masks correctly.
Photo credit: Getty
Fans quickly took to social media angered by the photo manipulation and lack of enforcement of the mask policy.
Enforce the mask rule instead of changing the photo. Fool.
– CronkiteProject (@bezsylk) March 4, 2021
Do you have a way to enforce wearing a mask?
– Melinda (@melwedde) March 4, 2021
I see you took out the woman who wasn’t wearing a mask…. I wonder why lmao. Quality standards
– jessica (@jcsgreenscreen) March 4, 2021
We just let the penguins get away with photoshopping masks on fans, huh
– Josh (@GoldAndOrSmith) March 4, 2021
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We’ve reached out to the Penguins for comment and haven’t heard anything yet.