Snopes: Ice Spice’s Super Bowl ‘devil horns’ symbol is ‘harmless’

Two prominent websites sought to downplay what many viewers believed to be a satanic moment at the Super Bowl. 

After an NFL tweet appeared to show rapper Ice Spice making “devil horn” hand gestures while wearing an inverted cross at Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, fact-checking site Snopes and entertainment news site TMZ both ran stories pushing back on responses to the viral video. 

While Snopes initially dismissed the social media response to the rapper’s necklace as “conspiracy theories,” the site later published an update that read, “This article was updated with reports that the cross worn by Ice Spice was indeed an inverted cross custom designed by Alex Moss.”

An earlier report from Snopes said the pendant appeared to be an equal-armed Greek cross rather than an inverted one — a notion refuted by Moss’ own social media, which clearly shows several images of the true shape of the necklace, along with other similar designs.

Snopes also disputed the notion that an inverted or upside-down is a satanic symbol, contrasting the symbol with the Cross of St. Peter, a Catholic symbol. 

“The belief that an inverted (upside-down) cross represents satanism, or literal devil-worship, is more widespread than it is accurate,” wrote Snopes fact-checker David Emery, who made a distinction between satanic groups in a previous fact-check on allegations involving Chelsea Clinton.

In a 2018 article entitled, “Does Chelsea Clinton Wear an Upside-Down ‘Satanic’ Cross?” Emery points out that while the so-called “Church of Satan … [does] not regard the inverted cross as an official symbol,” the inverted cross has a “more prominent place” with The Satanic Temple (TST,) which uses the symbol in one of its rituals.

The article then offers a qualifier that while neither group shares “a literal belief” in the devil, they both “completely reject theism” and hold to “philosophies in rational self-interest and individualism instead.”

TMZ, meanwhile, assured its readers that the inverted cross had “no devil ties behind it whatsoever,” and even cropped an image on its website to inaccurately portray the cross necklace as more like a Greek cross rather than an inverted one.

Describing the response from what TMZ called “pearl-clutchers,” the “exclusive” article said there was “nothing un-godly about this pendant at all — at least that’s what we’re being told anyway.”

“It’s just a sweet piece of ice with no devil ties behind it whatsoever,” the post added. “Our sources assure us … there was nothing satanic behind the meaning/design of the piece.”

The TMZ report was less clear about the hand gesture seen being flashed by Taylor Swift’s suite guest at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, making a single reference to the hand sign.

“A hand gesture she made at one point — quiet coyote — certainly didn’t help either with the unholy accusations,” TMZ wrote, in an apparent reference to the “quiet coyote” hand signal used by teachers and other adults to get children to “quiet down” and pay attention.

TMZ failed to elaborate further on this description.

Likewise, Snopes called the hand signal “harmless” and pushed back against suggestions that the Balenciaga wardrobe worn by Spice had any links to satanism despite the brand facing backlash in 2022 for an ad campaign that featured “disturbing images” of children.

“Conspiracy theorists have tried” to link the upscale Balenciaga brand, Snopes added, “to satanism without any real evidence.”

Ice Spice has yet to comment publicly on the backlash to her appearance at Super Bowl LVIII or clarify what she meant by the hand sign. 

Allegations about satanic imagery in Balenciaga ads emerged in November 2022 after the high-end brand launched an ad campaign featuring one image of a young boy flanked by several “hidden” satanic symbols, including an apparent “child’s drawing of the devil” and a neatly-tied black hood typically worn by “‘Satanic cult’ members.”

Snopes, which has long presented itself as the internet’s premier fact-checking site, apologized in 2021 for plagiarizing dozens of articles after nearly collapsing in 2017 over allegations of fraud and other legal challenges.

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