Not Real News
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
ClaimA video shows a woman filling a white plastic bag with gas at a Kroger station because of gas shortages in the Southeastern U.S.
The factsSocial media users are sharing an old video of a woman filling a plastic bag with gasoline to falsely claim it shows someone panic-buying gasoline this week. Thousands of gas stations in the Southeastern U.S. were running out of fuel because of distribution problems and panic-buying following a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline. One Twitter upload of the video, which shows a woman trying to tie a plastic bag sloshing with gasoline, received nearly 2 million views on Wednesday with the hashtag #gasshortage.But the video clip has nothing to do with current events. It first surfaced online in 2019. The video was taken at a Kroger supermarket service station in Houston. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission addressed the issue on Wednesday in a Twitter thread: “Do not fill plastic bags with gasoline,” the agency tweeted. “Use only containers approved for fuel.”
ClaimGas shortages resulting from Friday's Colonial Pipeline cyberattack have led NASCAR to postpone this weekend's race in Dover, Del.
The factsNASCAR has not postponed the race, the association confirmed to The Associated Press in an email. A false post shared on Facebook and Twitter pushed the baseless claim that disruptions after a hack of the nation's largest fuel pipeline had forced NASCAR to postpone the upcoming Drydene 400 NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Delaware's Dover International Speedway.The post featured an image of an alleged tweet from an account impersonating the name of Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass.NASCAR told the AP in an emailed statement that the post was false. “NASCAR has confirmed that there will be no impact to its racing operations at Dover this weekend due to fuel shortages across the Southeast,” the statement read. Pockrass also addressed the fake tweet on his real Twitter account, saying, “The Dover race is on this weekend.” A Twitter account with a username matching the one in the post has been suspended from the platform.
ClaimPhotos show Americans filling their cars with plastic bags of gasoline and lining up at gas stations with red gas cans in recent days.
The factsSocial media users are misrepresenting old photos to falsely suggest they show Americans stockpiling gasoline this week after a hack of the Colonial Pipeline led to distribution problems and panic-buying that resulted in thousands of gas stations running out of fuel. One falsely captioned photo shows a car trunk packed with gasoline in clear plastic bags.In fact, the photo was taken in 2019 in Mexico. Reports at the time said police had arrested two people transporting gasoline illegally in Huauchinango, Mexico. Social media users also shared years-old photos of people standing in line with red gas cans along with claims that they were taken recently.
ClaimThe underside of a Snapple lid shows the company included, “Trump lost and the election was not stolen,” as a “Real Fact” the company prints on its beverage lids.
The factsSnapple prints pieces of trivia, known as “Real Facts,” underneath its bottle lids, but the message “Trump lost and the election was not stolen,” was not one of them, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Associated Press.“I can confirm on behalf of the brand that this is not an official Snapple 'Real Fact' printed on bottle caps,” said Katie Gilroy, senior director of corporate communications at Keurig Dr Pepper, which produces and distributes Snapple.
