College Student Pledges to Cut off Genitals over Trump Border Wall-Fiction!

Protesting Trump Border Wall, College Student Pledges to Cut off Genitals-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:
A California college student has pledged to cut off his genitals in protest of President Trump’s proposed border wall.
The Truth:
An account of a college freshman pledging to cut off his penis that was published as “an entertainment piece” has been mistaken for actual news.
The article originally appeared at site RightWingNews.com under the headline, “California Freshman to Cut off Penis if Donald Trump Builds Wall,” on January 14, 2017. The story begins:

In a bizarre form of protest, University of California freshman Seth Greenberg has promised to publicly remove his penis (he did not specify the method of removal) if Donald Trump begins project work on the US Mexican border wall.

“I’m so confident that Trump is full of shit, that I will cut my dick off, publicly if he adds even a mile of new wall” stated Greenberg in an on the street interview, where he was simultaneously protesting prayer in public school.

When pressed about the validity of his claim, Greenberg promised that “I will really do this. I feel that if he does actually build any of the wall, me removing my penis publicly will bring worldwide attention to the injustice being inflicted against the Mexican people.”

The story was widely re-reported and shared on various right-wing websites in the days and weeks that followed its publication. Many of them missed (either intentionally or accidentally) a disclaimer appearing at the bottom of the original article that reads: “This is an entertainment piece – all information found in this article is fictitious, and no representation of any individual, living or dead is intentional.”

Then, after the success of the original “entertainment” article, the site published a second report under the headline, “2nd California Student Vows to Remove Penis if Trump Builds Wall,” on January 16, 2017:

In a bizarre show of solidarity with fellow University of California student Seth Greenberg, Sophomore Jakob Connulson has also pledged to remove his penis if Trump adds any additional structure to the existing US-Mexico border wall. Apparently, Greenberg and Connulson are members of a private campus group known as the “Open Borders Friends,” described by one source as being a group of radical students who don’t believe in the validity of Sovereign states.

And, of course, a third “entertainment” piece followed under the headline, “More College Kids Pledge to Remove Genitals if Trump Builds Wall,” on January 19, 2017:

As reported previously, 2 students at The University of California stated that they would publicly remove their penis’ if Trump enforced the existing USA-Mexico border wall. In a continuance of this trend, 4 students at the University of Washington have promised to remove pieces of their reproductive anatomy if Trump builds the wall.

As these reports have been re-reported and shared on social media, they’ve frequently been mistaken for credible reports. But all of these stories fall under the category of “entertainment pieces” that are full of “fictitious” information.