I Can't Believe I Have To Debunk A Hoax About Students Threatening To Cut Off Their Penises

Or their testicles, for that matter.

On Jan. 14, a website called Right Wing Now, which publishes completely false stories, published a hoax about a California student threatening to cut off his penis if Trump built a wall between Mexico and the United States.

The website, which is no longer active, later added a disclaimer stating that "all information found in this article is fictitious" — but it still went viral.

The post received over 140,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook and skyrocketed to the top of /r/The_Donald subreddit with 6,668 upvotes. Apparently thrilled with its success, Right Wing Now wrote a follow-up hoax about another student vowing to undergo a penectomy.

And from there, things got a bit crazy.

Dozens of (mostly conservative) sites have written up the hoax as real, including the website of popular alt-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos. One website got over half a million views for its false story, according to a stats counter on the article page.

Seven months since that first hoax went online, it's still circulating on partisan conservative sites with made-up quotes and varying details.

And people are still falling for the story.

I love this idea! Thin the herd. Since we have no biology sense, bet girls are threatening to cut theirs off too. https://t.co/4uP9mqmpwF

Twitter / @smidgean

There is still hope for the rest Democratic Party I only pray that the colleges keep teaching this method!!🇺🇸🇺🇸🤠 https://t.co/eOxFzfKDf9

Even an Anthony Scaramucci parody account got in on the action.

This is outstanding news for our environment. I'm glad we can agree on the need for the wall @realDonaldTrump @CNN https://t.co/R6ptn01LY5

But remember, students threatening to snip their genitals off if Trump builds a border wall with Mexico is FAKE NEWS.

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