Taco Bell Files For Bankruptcy, Closing All Restaurants –Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Taco Bell has filed for bankruptcy and will close all Taco Bell locations in 2017 and 2018.
The Truth:
A website that encourages users to “prank” friends with hoax news reports is behind the latest rumor that Taco Bell has filed for bankruptcy and will close all locations in 2017 and 2018.
The rumor started at TopTrend.us, a website that allows readers to create fictitious headlines (like the one about Taco Bell declaring bankruptcy) and to then share them on Facebook with friends and families. Then, when people click on the link to read the actual story, it’s made clear that they’ve fallen for a prank:
A prank website is behind false reports that Taco Bell filed for bankruptcy and will close all locations in 2017 and 2018.
There’s no truth to reports that Taco Bell has filed for bankruptcy or will close all its restaurants in 2017 or 2018. If that rumor sounds familiar, it could because a nearly identical version circulated in 2015 (click here for our coverage of that one).
Another claim that Taco Bell was going out of business in 2016. A satirical article about Taco Bell filing for bankruptcy after the franchise’s “steal a base, steal a taco” promotion during the 2016 Major League Baseball playoffs went awry and forced the chain to give away millions in free tacos appeared at the satirical website National Report.
Taco Bell Declares Bankruptcy After “Steal A Taco” World Series Promo Runs Amok https://t.co/AYZGXoo7PR pic.twitter.com/IROgcMk0pM
— National Report (@TNROnline) November 3, 2016
Given all that, the latest claims that Taco bell has filed for bankruptcy and will close all location is nothing more than another hoax.
A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:
Collected on: 05/25/2017
Social media users react to false reports that Taco Bell filed for bankruptcy and would close all locations.