Take This Quiz To Find Out How Easily You Fall For Online Bullshit
This week we have stories about Google, George Orwell, and Korean pop music.
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Did Google stop promoting the State of the Union address on its homepage when Trump became president?
It’s fake!
The Internet Archive, a screenshot, and a statement from Google all show that the video the president shared was inaccurate.
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There’s a CCTV camera outside a house where George Orwell lived.
It’s fake!
A reverse image search and Google streetview confirm the image is fake, AFP reports.
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Jamaica made Korean pop music illegal in the country.
8shit.net
It’s fake!
The story was posted to a site that labels itself as satire, but the screenshot went viral. A spokesperson for Jamaica’s prime minister ultimately stepped in to tweet, “This is NOT TRUE!!!!!”
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Police found a headless torso in a fish tank in San Francisco.
It’s real!
Police said they found the body in the house of a man who was reported missing. The corpse had decomposed so much that police couldn’t figure out the body’s identity or sex.
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Old Reddit posts show that the Jacksonville shooter posted anti-Trump messages and supported the “resistance.”
Hal Turner Show
It’s fake!
The real person behind the Reddit account posted an Ask Me Anything thread after the shooting. He told BuzzFeed News the outlets that claimed he was the shooter didn’t reach out to him for verification.
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New York City showed up as “Jewtropolis” on the Snapchat map.
It’s real!
Snapchat and a handful of other services use a third-party map called Mapbox. One possible explanation is that Mapbox pulled in vandalized data.
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The video below shows journalists staging migrants drowning.
Twitter: @AmyMek
It's fake!
An investigation by AFP shows the viral video was actually the filming of a documentary about the 1922 Greek exodus.
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Jane Lytvynenko is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Toronto, Canada. PGP fingerprint: A088 89E6 2500 AD3C 8081 BAFB 23BA 21F3 81E0 101C.
Contact Jane Lytvynenko at jane.lytvynenko@buzzfeed.com.
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