Paris Hilton Claims She ‘Invented’ the Selfie, but the Internet Isn’t Having It

The year 2006 was a busy one for stars Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Hilton had reached global fame for her reality show, The Simple Life, and Spears was at the height of her singing career. And, according to Hilton, they had both created the selfie.

“11 years ago today, Me & Britney invented the selfie!” Hilton claimed on Twitter on Sunday.

It’s a bold claim considering that people have had a fascination with themselves since, well, the beginning of time. But is it true? Did an heiress and a pop singing sensation truly create the trend that would take over social media feeds and lead to poses like the duck face?

Twitter users were quick to dig into the selfie archives to do some investigating, quickly disproving Hilton’s claim to fame.

“Sorry, @BillNyeSaves did it way before you. It was 1999,” one person commented.

Apparently, astronaut Buzz Aldrin even beat Hilton to the selfie.

Several users pointed out that people have been taking selfies since the early 1900s.

As it turns out, the first selfie wasn’t taken by Hilton, but by this man way back in 1839.

To help clarify any lingering doubt, the BBC also shared a link to a story about the history of selfies. Apparently, while selfies have been around for centuries, the term wasn’t coined until 2002 when an Australian man named Nathan Hope posted a picture of his lips with the caption, “Sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”