Photo of Silicon Valley tech executives doctored to include women: report

A photo of Silicon Valley tech executives is taking heat after two women were photoshopped to be added to the group, BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday.

The photo of the “tech titans,” was published by GQ last week and featured LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Dropbox CEO Drew Houston at a gathering in a small Italian village. The group was reportedly visiting luxury designer Brunello Cucinelli, BuzzFeed reported.

{mosads}Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich and Peek CEO Ruzwana Bashir were doctored into the photo, according to BuzzFeed, which was posted to Cucinelli’s Instagram on May 30. GQ then used the photo as its main image for its June 4 story about the so-called Solomeo Summit.

BuzzFeed News reporter Ryan Mac, who reported the photo edit, noted that Jurich had “weird stuff” going on “with her leg, which isn’t aligned with the rest of her body.”

A Twitter user’s analysis of the photo later confirmed that the photo had been altered in Adobe Photoshop, BuzzFeed reported.

Someone smarter than me (@z3dster) ran the original photo from Cucinelli’s website through an exif analysis.

This isn’t definitive, but the metadata shows the photo was run through Photoshop before being posted. Let’s gooooooo. pic.twitter.com/x1Q2Kw9tRS

— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) June 11, 2019

LMAO THEY PHOTOSHOPPED THE WOMEN IN.

(credit to @benjymous for the incredible find via reverse image search and LinkedIn) pic.twitter.com/NzSHT5jO6S

— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) June 12, 2019

Both of the female CEOs were reportedly at the event, their respective press teams told Newsweek.

“Ms. Jurich was delighted to participate in Mr. Cucinelli’s symposium on the soul and economy,” Sunrun said in a statement to Newsweek. “As a leading energy sector, Ms. Jurich discussed the urgent need to decarbonize and the role of technology to accelerate decarbonization.”

Hours after the doctoring was discovered on Twitter, a spokesperson on Cucinelli’s team sought to explain the incident to BuzzFeed, stating that “when we realized we didn’t have a shot where all attendees were represented, we added in photos of two female CEOs taken during the weekend.”

“The photos were shared and approved with all the participants including the two women, Lynn Jurich and Ruzwana Bashir, before posting them on Instagram and they also shared the group photo on their own Instagram handles,” the spokesperson said.

“We meant no harm or had any malicious intent in doing this and we are sorry,” the spokesperson added.

Many Twitter users joked about the doctoring, while others expressed their disappointment. One user labeled it “an incredible wtf moment.”

This is an incredible wtf moment.

— Stephen Davis (@SteveyD) June 12, 2019 

GQ later removed the doctored image from its story, saying that it “did not meet GQ’s editorial standards.”