Is ‘Bar’ an Acronym for ‘Beer and Alcohol Room’? A meme with the claim that the word “bar” is an acronym for “beer and alcohol room” suddenly appeared in late December 2018: The meme was virtually identical in both presentation and format to a similar post claiming the word “hospital” had a similar etymology; this version also utilized the “today years old” theme. It was captioned […]
Do Two-Thirds of Millennials Not Know What Auschwitz Is? In late December 2018, the Facebook page for Yahoo! Now shared a link to an article with a comment that two-thirds of millennials “don’t know what Auschwitz was.” The post linked to an article aggregated to Yahoo! from Newsweek on April 12 2018, “One-Third of Americans Don’t Believe 6 Million Jews Were Murdered During the […]
How to Slow the Spread of Disinformation: A Guide for Newsrooms Every day, a new fake story emerges with the power to affect policy or further corrode relationships, from interpersonal to international. This is corrosive disinformation, as different from garden-variety scams and hoaxes as a molehill is from a mountain. The difference is intent — not just to mislead, but to defraud and misinform — and scale. Simple […]
Did President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Call Same-Sex Marriage ‘Evil’? On December 27, 2018, a brief video appeared to show Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussing homosexuality and referring to the Rapture, which according to certain sects of evangelical Christianity is the end of the world in which all “true believers,” dead or alive, ascend to Heaven: One of the “battles” Pompeo is […]
Did a Twitter User Claim a Border Wall GoFundMe Campaign Got ‘Almost Halfway’ to a Billion Dollars? In late December 2018, a screenshot of a tweet attributed to a Twitter user who goes by “@MAGA_diane” began circulating on social media: The tweet appeared with a link to a GoFundMe campaign to fund a border wall between the United States and Mexico (created and pushed by Brian Kolfage, who has a history of […]
Did the FBI Declare That ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Was ‘Communist Propaganda’? In December 2018, claims that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had once deemed the holiday classic film It’s a Wonderful Life to be “communist propaganda” circulated on various social media sites: Fun Fact: Months after It’s A Wonderful Life was released, The FBI thought it was communist propaganda due to the wealthy banker being the villain. — […]
Is a Meme About Taxes Europeans Pay for Their ‘Free Stuff’ Accurate? On December 18, 2018, a Facebook user shared this meme about tax and purported socialism in several European countries: In addition to a chart listing purported figures for Germany, England, Italy, and Greece, its text read: JUST WANTED TO SHOW ALL OF YOU WHO THINK SOCIALISM IS THE WAY TO GO. THIS IS HOW MUCH PEOPLE […]
Did Trump Adviser Katrina Pierson Appear to Scold the Late John McCain for His Silence on Dossier? A December 20, 2018 tweet from political operative Katrina Pierson was widely examined and commented on when its syntax made it appear that Pierson was chiding Sen. John McCain — who died the previous August — for his silence: Since everyone is just now realizing his staffers role in the #RussiaHoax We have been asking questions! John […]
Is a Viral ‘Package Thief vs. Glitter Bomb Trap’ Video Real? On December 17, 2018 YouTube content creator and former NASA engineer Mark Rober shared a video called “Package Thief vs. Glitter Bomb Trap,” which purportedly showed the aftermath of a glitter bomb deployment on unwitting porch pirates who were unable to resist stealing Apple-branded packages from unguarded front entryways: Someone stole a package from me. Police […]
Is a Mike Huckabee Tweet About the Clinton Foundation Real? Following news on December 18, 2018 that the Trump Foundation would close, a tweet attributed to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in which he appeared to think that the Clinton Foundation was closing circulated in screenshots on social media. In the tweet, Huckabee was sharing and commenting on a December 18, 2018 tweet shared by […]
