Here's a checklist for spotting a fake viral story
Illustration: Intelligencer Over the weekend, the anonymous Twitter user @SixthFormPoet spun a tale of graveside romance that went viral on Twitter. Poet claimed he used to put flowers on a grave that never seemed to get any attention — only to discover that it was the grave of a man who murdered his wife and her parents on Christmas Day. As penance, he found the graves of the victims and went there to place flowers on them instead.
The benefit to stories like these popping up so frequently is that they become easier to spot. Once you know the formula, it’s hard to read past a tweet or two before checking out, knowing full well what you’re reading is just fiction. And not particularly nuanced fiction at that. Here’s a checklist for what you should be keeping an eye out for:
2. TOO! MANY! CAPITAL! LETTERS! Is SOMEONE TWEETING AT YOU LIKE THIS? IS THEIR STORY BEST TOLD IN A SHOUT! The tweeter doth caps lock too much, methinks. A light Google search for Christmas Day triple homicides in the Sussex area didn’t lead me to anything confirming this thread was real. Scrolling through the replies, at least one person claimed to have heard the entire tale before from another source. A surefire sign of a borrowed legend.
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