Starbucks “Dreamer Day” on August 11th Offers Free Products to Illegal Immigrants-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A Starbucks “Dreamer Day” promotion on August 11, 2017, offers discounts or free products to all undocumented immigrants in America.
The Truth:
False claims that Starbucks “Dream Day” on August 11, 2017, would allow undocumented immigrants to get free or discounted products at Starbucks was part of a ruse concocted by an online community to flood a “liberal business” with undocumented people demanding free stuff.
The claim took off on social media and included variations for Starbucks locations in different parts of the country. These offers claimed that Starbucks’ “Dreamer Day” allowed undocumented Americans one free product or products for 40% off:
It turns out, however, that Dreamer Day is a hoax that started on 4chan’s notorious /pol/, or “Politically Incorrect,” boar. It has been used to organize and spread misinformation in the past. One user kicked things off by throwing the idea out for others to brainstorm about on a thread that has since been archived:
“How about we meme “Undocumented Immigrant Day” at Starbucks into existence? Announce free coffee for all illegals on a certain date. August 11? 11 looks like II (for Illegal Immigrant). I’m open to suggestions there. Name a liberal place for all illegals to go at once and demand free stuff.
After some discussion, commenters narrowed down Starbucks, Whole Foods and REI as potential “liberal places” before singling out Starbucks. From there, the users created fake advertisements (like the one pictured above) and distributed them across social media in a misinformation campaign. Starbucks responded directly to one tweet by calling the claim “completely false”:
https://twitter.com/Starbucks/status/893597346436571136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdetroit.cbslocal.com%2F2017%2F08%2F07%2Fstarbucks-denies-rumor-of-dreamer-day-discounts-for-immigrants%2F
Given that Starbucks has debunked claims about Dream Day, and that an archived 4chan thread reveals the claim to be a deliberate hoax, we’re calling this one “fiction.”