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TIL that viral story about the alligator in the Chicago sewer was a total hoax from 2008.
I was fact-checking for a class project and traced it back to a prank website, which made me realize how often old hoaxes get recycled as new 'news'. Has anyone else found a recent story that's just a repackaged old fake?
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wilson.olivia4d agoTop Commenter
Check the date first, always lol
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abby_cooper4d ago
Actually, checking the date is a total waste of time for most things. Like if a friend sends a funny meme from 2019, who cares? It's still funny. Or an old article with good advice is still good advice. This rule just makes people miss out on cool old stuff.
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williamw754d ago
You know what's wild? I got burned by that exact same gator story a few years back. What I do now is run a quick reverse image search if a pic looks too crazy. That usually shows if it's been floating around for ages. @abby_cooper has a point that old stuff can still be good, but with news you gotta know if it's even real first. For my project, I started looking at the website's "about" page and that's how I spotted the prank. Saves you from looking dumb sharing something that was fake a decade ago.
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