On April 16 2019, the Facebook page “Veggie Soul” shared a popular meme (archived here), containing several purported facts about the plant: The text, which was accompanied by an image of dandelions, stated: Dandelion Facts: Dandelions are NOT weeds, but are from the same family as sunflowers. 1 cup of dandelion greens – 535% of …
,On April 16 2019 the Facebook page “Proud Liberal Americans” shared a subsequently popular meme (archived here), purportedly contrasting statements provided by United States Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump about the fire that gutted Notre Dame Cathedral: At the top was a photograph of Obama and a quote: “Notre Dame is one of the world’s …
Are These Presidents Obama and Trump’s Statements on the Notre Dame Fire? Read More »
In February 2019, the following image appeared (archived here), with the description “victorious black soldiers returning to the U.S. from World War I are lynched while still in uniform.” An attached image showed a black man being dragged from a streetcar by several white men, captioned “the massacre they don’t teach you about in history.” However, the …
Were Black WWI Veterans in Uniform Lynched During the Red Summer of 1919? Read More »
On April 17 2019, a Facebook post (archived here) began circulating, purporting to tell the tragic story (“they pushed her”) of a young girl named Carmen Winstead, as well as the fates of the classmates responsible for her death: They pushed her After lunch, her teacher announced that the school was holding a fire drill. …
Soon after the April 15 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire broke out, Twitter user @FaithGoldy tweeted that the blaze occurred shortly after the arrest of “three Muslim jihadis” in Paris (archived here): A screenshot of the tweet was subsequently shared by the Facebook page “Freedom From Tyranny” (archived here.) The original tweet linked to an April …
Over a quarter of a million Facebook users have shared a purported giveaway shared by the page “Santorini Holidays” (archived here) in April 2019. A featured album of (admittedly beautiful) pictures is captioned as follows: We’re going to celebrate our Grand Opening by doing something special for you. We’re going to be rewarding someone who …
News of a devastating fire at Paris’s famous Notre Dame cathedral on April 15 2019 created a flashpoint of global interest, followed by immediate rumors that the blaze was an act of arson or terror. On Twitter, a since-deleted tweet published by TIME magazine columnist Christopher J. Hale appears to have contributed to early versions of that …
On March 31 2019, an image (archived here) went viral on social media purportedly showing a “yellow hat” firefighter protest in Spain. Under an image of several men wearing only yellow hats and boots was a caption: Forget the yellow vests demonstrating around parliament. Here in Spain we have the yellow hats (firemen) demonstrating for a …
Is This Image Yellow Hat Firefighters Protesting in Spain? Read More »
A February 2016 Facebook post about Dell Children’s Hospital and a purported young rape victim (archived here) continued circulating several years after the fact. The post and its variations featured roughly the same all-caps text, with rotating images of a man as seen above: THIS GUY RAPED A FIVE YEAR OLD LITTLE GIRL… HE RUINED …
Is Dell Hospital Collecting Donations for a Young Assault Victim Named Maria? Read More »
In April 2019, a July 2017 text-based status update (archived here) about a lack of clean water in Flint, Michigan continued making the rounds on social media. Across a blue sky background, white text read as follows: 1188 days still no clean water for Flint MI, all my ppl share this from everywhere please As …
