To wonder why people repeat myths on the internet without checking

[hackmum]

Someone on Facebook has just posted a link to the story about Zouheir, the "Muslim" who supposedly confronted a suicide bomber outside the Stade de France last week.

Except it's not true, as this BBC story explains:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-34845882

It takes a matter of seconds to check something like this. Yet the Muslim Council of Britain repeated the story in its advert condemning the attacks.

Obviously it's not just this story - it happens all the time. Another friend just posted something purporting to be a speech to schoolchildren by Bill Gates, except it isn't. But I don't get why. It's so easy to check stuff now - just a few seconds of googling.

So why do otherwise intelligent people (and both the people I've just cited are highly educated) not check? Why don't they learn from experience? Is it that they're just not that bothered whether something is true or not?

Can anyone enlighten me?

hobnobs my mum told me this one the other day and I was thinking "oh God, she's been gullible and fallen for this bollocks".

Then she said -

"The old Muslim man turned to the good samaritan and said "Stay out of Birmingham city centre this Christmas".

"Why? Is there going to be an attack?" the good samaritan asked.

"No", replied the Muslim man. "It's just a shithole".

Oh those abandoned car seat ones do my head. I know I woman who 'knew' someone this happened to. When I asked why someone being dragged out of their car, raped and left for dead didn't make the news and she didn't know. The other one I saw recently was someone getting in the back seat in a petrol station and it being a gang initiation or something. All a load of bollocks.

Just checked snopes and apparently that one started appearing in September 2001.

Hobnobs & Oyster a version of that story has been doing the rounds for decades - used to be Irish person instead of Muslim.

My Facebook friends are all joining in with a stupid 'buy one book get 36 in return' pyramid scheme.
I've told them it's a con, linked to an article which explains how it's mathematically impossible for this scheme to work, and they are still doing it!
I suppose at least they are better than the idiots who reposted Britain First crap about a little blonde toddler kidnapped by 'a Muslim gang.' I've deleted those friends as they are just too stupid to reason with.
Am I the only person who never forwards / shares anything on Facebook that I didn't write myself!

YY Merguez I remember that story first doing the rounds about the Irish.
My son was told the other day there's definitely going to be a bombing in the Midlands soon to stop all the transport routes from North to South, remember first hearing this about 20 odd years ago too

Totally agree Op!! Have seen one doing the rounds at the moment about a "friend of a friend" who works security at Bluewater saying to stay away from there on black Friday as apparently they are aware there is going to be an attack and have ordered in 750 bodybags in preparation!! Words fail me...

the one that grates on me the most.......my friends, mums, sister in laws, kids teachers, doctors vets granny knew someone who kept a big snake and they woke up one day and it was lying next to her sizing her up ready to eat her (or variants of)

If i had a quid for every time someone quoted that to me as the gospel truth, Id be a millionaire....as soon as they know I keep BIG snakes, they trot out this story without fail, and swear blind they actually got this from their vet or a totally reputable source.

Yes, some of the urban legend type ones date back to the 70s (and before, for all I know).

There are varying degrees of gullibility required with these things. For example, I think you really have to be a bit slow to believe ones that say: "If this picture gets a thousand likes, Microsoft will donate £1m to cancer research."

On the other hand, the Zouheir story I mentioned in the OP appeared in enough vaguely reputable sources to seem plausible. What interests me is the way this stuff plays to people's prejudices. So enough well-meaning liberal types (of which I am one) wanted to believe it, and so in their eyes, if they wanted it to be true, then it was true.

The other thing that amazes me is when someone comes up with something I first saw 15 years or so ago. You think: how come you've never heard this one before?

I keep seeing pictures of Christmas lights that are unintentionally shaped like a penis and testicles.

They claim to be in high streets in all four corners of the country yet it's the exact same photo taken from the exact same angle

YANBU drives me up the wall, my most hated ones being any of those ones designed to drum up a bit of social unrest (Corporal X went into branch of a supermarket on a street that doesn't even exist and totally fictitious Muslim shop worker refused to serve him) and the 'anti rape advice' (don't wear a scarf, don't wear you hair long, it's all your fault not at all the responsibility of the actual bloody rapist). I've annoyed myself just typing about them, need a glass of wine now.

If you're interested in psychology or anthropology, urban legends are a really fascinating subject. Why people believe them and why they hate to be caught out, even if they didn't write it.

I despair of people i really do. Lots shouldnt be allowed anywhere near the internet, however if it wasnt for stupid on the internet it wouldnt be as entertaining.

Currently doing the rounds is the muslim woman dropping her shopping/money in meadowhell and some nice white lady helping her to the phrase loads wouldnt you know. Muslim woman decides one good turn deserves another and says keep out of meadowhall on boxing day.
Ive seen the anti terrorism ads so why isnt said good Samaritan phoning the police to report it rather than posting on facebook.

In some the police have been informed and have seen the woman on cctv so are chasing it up, some the police have informed the good samaritan to not tell anyone- but facebook must be ok to be told

Someones going to be enjoying the boxing day sales.

Oh gods yes, poor Lauren. So far that's happened to her in at least 7 US states, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and various parts of the UK. Bloody unlucky isn't she?

My MIL (in another country) phoned my DH to tell him the following scam she's seen on FB, and that he should warn me about it.

A man knocks at the door at a house where a mum and her children are. The mum opens the door and the man explains that - gasp - the DH has been kidnapped! The man goes on to say that the mum should go with him immediately and get money for the ransom. The mum goes out, leaving her kids behind. The kids are then kidnapped, and the baddies also get loads of ransom money.

I don't know what is sillier - the idea that I'd rush out of the house and leave my 1 and 4 year olds unattended, or that the huge hole in this story is that I would just be able to call DH. "Have you been kidnapped?" "No."

On a similar level, all the people who post spoof stories with real outrage.

One woman I work with just does not understand The Onion, and I've considered submitting her to literally unbelievable a few times now...

My fb friends share with 'not sure if it's true but thought I'd share it anyway!'. Usually about fb charging or privacy.

That Hallowe'en one's brilliant, fuzzpig

A tedious fact-checker as a rule, I shared the Zouheir story - I've just deleted it, but it's already been shared from my feed several times. I saw it repeated on news sites that are usually reliable afaik and, anyway, it was a positive story that conveys values I can get on board with. Sometimes that matters: although, sadly, when the story's debunked some of the values go with it.

Tbh, most of my tedious fact-checking is done in the service of debunking myths propagated by our beloved government and mainstream media. I'm more pissed off about their disinformation campaigns than a few schmaltzy or 'thrilling' fairy tales across the interwebs.

Yes to all those saying it used to be an IRA man repaying a good turn by whispering hoarsely into the good Samaritan's ear 'Keep out of Dublin city centre on Saturday'. The Irish punchline used to involve the Good Samaritan gasping and asking why, to which Random IRA man says 'Because it's a shithole, Nuala'.

But pre-Internet, it just went by word of mouth, now the stupid gets to circulate fast, and as others have said, the dopey hide behind the fact they didn't write it, they just shared it.

When I used to teach first year university students at my last institution, I used to set them an exercise on finding good sources for scholarship on a particular topic online, and then temporarily alter, say, Virginia Woolf's Wiki entry to say she had been born in Azerbaijan, wrote for Playboy, and was rumoured to be a werewolf, and see who got caught.

The stupid thing is, if the 112 thing worked... Um, would I not be telling all my friends?!

Recently read one on my FB,

Warning to any men shopping at (local) asda, 2 woman scammers are doing the rounds. They jump in your car as you're about to leave, one sits on your knee and gets her boobs out while the other takes your wallet....I got scammed last Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and twice on Friday. The pound shop around the corner sells wallets....

This is the one dotted all over my newsfeed at the moment...

A recovering Soldier

I feel sorry for the hospital!

It's so easy to check stuff now - just a few seconds of googling

It is sooo annoying" All it takes is quick google

Oh the irony