HOUSTON — Millions of people saw the post on X of a man holding up the peace sign in front of a sign saying CrowdStrike on the same day the company was at the center of a worldwide technology outage.
That man is Vincent Flibustier and the KHOU 11 Verify Team found out he's a teacher who lives in Belgium.
As the CrowdStrike outage impact continued to be felt among systems impacting businesses, airlines and hospitals on Friday, Flibustier's post continued to get millions of clicks.
In a Zoom interview with our Verify producer, Flibustier said, "People always need someone to blame. So I was, like, it's me."
He made a secondary post that included a video further explaining the details of the debunked claim he caused the worldwide glitch.
Since making the two viral posts, Flibustier told KHOU 11 he received global attention, mainly because people believed his claim.
In subsequent social media posts throughout Friday, Flibustier revealed how he used Photoshop to edit the picture that duped thousands of people into believing he was at the cybersecurity firm's headquarters. He also told The KHOU 11 Verify Team that he has never visited Austin, Texas, where the CrowdStrike headquarters are located.
In the interview with KHOU 11, Flibustier said it's easy to look him up since he lists his website on his page. According to the website, he specializes in training media education and fake news.
"I think it's distressing because my fake isn't dangerous. It's, like, just funny. But maybe next time someone will see something more dangerous. Something about war in the Middle East ... maybe they will check -- what is the source? Who is talking?" Flibustier said.