February 2017 Monthly Round-Up
February is nearly over but the shortest month of the year certainly saw its fair share of nonsense spreading across the Internet.
Let’s look at some of our popular articles over the last 28 days.
ISIS leader arrested at JFK?
It’s fair to say that President Trump has been under a lot of scrutiny after his controversial ban on residents of several Muslim-majority countries of late, and lots of fake news articles appeared in the subsequent weeks attempting to justify the ban. Namely this hoax that claimed an ISIS leader was arrested after being detained at JFK airport thanks to the executive order. In reality the story came from a fake news website and was not based on any truth whatsoever.
ISIS leader arrested in JFK after executive order? Fact Check
Recommended by a lawyer
Oh goody, just what we want to see – the silly privacy notice hoax being slightly reworded for the umpteenth time and manages to spread again on Facebook. So once again, no, posting nonsense on your timeline doesn’t “protect” your photos or posts.
“Recommended by a lawyer” privacy notice spreads again on Facebook
Why do Facebook accounts get cloned?
Facebook cloning is where crooks create duplicate accounts of user’s accounts and then send friend requests to all their friends in the hope that some will accept. But why do it? We explain here…
The Queen can kill Trump?
When headlines get separated from their blatantly satirical source, we can have problems. The Daily Mash wrote a satirical piece claiming the Queen stated she could kill Trump and get away with it. Obviously satirical in nature, the headline still managed to go viral, and many were asking the question, could she?
Killer insect on the loose?
Really, there is no killer insect from India on the loose. This rumour has been doing the rounds for years, and more fake images has given the hoax a new lease of life. It still isn’t true.
More like-farming
A mum from the UK has been pleading with Facebook to remove photos of her sick child who was being used as bait for scammers to accumulate likes for their spammy Facebook pages. Facebook’s response was as flippant and uncaring as it usually is, and only removed the photos when the mainstream media got involved.
UK mum attempts to get Facebook to remove vile like-farming posts of her son
Film uses fake news to promote itself, then apologises.
A new horror film used a series of fake news websites to promote itself. But it was so clumsily done, 21st Century Fox had to apologise for the “error in judgement”.
20th Century Fox apologize for fake news promotional campaign
Blair resting feet on coffin?
Another resurgence on an old hoax sees a photoshopped image apparently showing ex-UK prime minister Tony Blair with his feet resting on top of a soldiers coffin spreading once again. And once again, it’s not real.
Does photo show Tony Blair with feet resting on coffin? Fact Check
Step Brothers 2 movie poster
Fake movie posters have certainly been a popular ruse in the past, and this month saw a fake Step Brothers 2 post doing the social media rounds. Sadly for fans of the original movie, there has been no confirmed sequel and the poster was fake.
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