Beyoncé and Jay Z Are Not Buying Rights to the Confederate Flag (UPDATED)

The original post has since been updated.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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UPDATE: Earlier today, we saw a news post on Dazed Digital—which they have since deleted—and aggregated from it, without checking the validity of yet another satire site. Thanks to Yesha Callahan, who pointed it out on Twitter, NewsWatch33 is a fake site and the news about Beyoncé and Jay Z buying rights to the Confederate Flag are not true. 

Beyoncé and Jay Z's lawyer confirmed earlier this week that the couple is trying to buy rights to the Confederate flag.

Last month, photos of Dylann Roof—the terrorist who shot nine black people dead in a South Carolina church—emerged, in which he's pictured posing in front of the flag. The debate on the flag's use in the South reached a new peak following the Charleston Church Massacre. Recently, the South Carolina Senate voted to take down the flag, after major retailers—Walmart, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, among others—began to pull Confederate merch from stores. 

Now, Bey and Jay want to purchase rights to the flag so it cannot be used on any merch in the future without their permission. “My clients are adamant about purchasing the rights to the Rebel Confederate flag," their lawyer Ralph Hammerstein told NewsWatch33.  They have expressed deep concern regarding the flag and how it is tearing apart our nation. Mr. and Mrs. Carter wants to assist in the abolishment of the flag by purchasing the resell rights to the Confederate flag. If my clients are successful, purchasing the rights would mean that anyone who wants to produce merchandise using the Confederate flag would have to get permission from Mr. and Mrs. Carter. My clients have expressed that they are not looking to profit from the use of the flag, but rather prevent any further use of the flag on merchandise.”

[via Dazed Digital]

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