Georgian users were actively sharing on Facebook an article “iPhone X to include revolutionary arsehole recognition technology” posted on Newsthump.com on September 12.
The article reads that the new iPhone X will reportedly recognize the unique arsehole signature of its users and automatically log them in. In particular, two cameras mounted to the device will create an ‘in depth’ picture of the specific arsehole characteristics of its user in 3D, and will then recognize them again from any angle.
Myth Detector got interested in the news article and the website that posted it. The verification has revealed that Newsthump.com is a satirical and spoof news website taking a daily swipe at current affairs from the UK and around the world. The website also notes in its section about Newsthump that “it is our stated aim to mock absolutely everyone, eventually.” “If you read a story on here, then you are not supposed to believe it,” it says.
Hilarious fake is one of the forms of fake news that can be spread through several sources of social media and even picked up by traditional media. Hilarious fake news stories are separated from fabrication mainly through references provided by satirical websites themselves, as indicated in Newsthump.com’s mission statement. As a result, readers are informed that the material is humoristic; so, they do not perceive it as a real story. But when such stories are disseminated in social networks without any context, users find it difficult to perceive it as a satire or parody. In such cases it is recommended:
- To familiarize oneself with the website’s mission and activities;
- To use a special resource scamadviser.com that provides additional details about a media outlet: date of its creation; administering country, owner, etc. It will help verify the reliability of this media outlet
There are some cases, when various media outlets disseminate fake news stories as real facts and deliberately mislead the readers. For example, in April 2017, an online portal Geworld.ge released a fake news story by satirical portal World News Daily Report on raping a 2500-year-old mummy by a museum‘s night watchman as a real story.
