U.S. Legal Drinking Age Raised to 25, Hoax Fools Millions Online and Causes Stir, Read More Here

 

U.S. Legal Drinking Age Raised to 25, Hoax Fools Millions Online and Causes Stir, Read More Here

Some hoaxes try to make waves and fail, but a few succeed and get the reaction that the writer was hoping for. This was the case with the hoax of the U.S. legal drinking age raising from 21 to 25 years old. In the age of social media, some things just happen to catch on and clearly this shows that legal drinking age is something many people are passionate about. 

The post originally went viral online a few weeks back about the legal drinking age changing in several countries including the U.S. and Canada. The post was "promulgated by a phony, amateurishly written ABC News lookalike article posted on Sunday Times Daily, a web site that allows users to 'create your own fake news and trick your friends by sharing it on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.'"

A published post states that the drinking age will be changed to 25 in the UK and US-and another posted on the same website saying it will change to 23 in Canada. Many people still think the posts are real and have been complaining about it on social media. 

The posts seem real to readers at first because they use official logos from ABC or the BBC. The website is generating its traffic and makes money from advertisements. 

The website reads, "We are sorry, but you were tricked! It was just a joke...Don't worry, you are not the only one. [Millions of] people already fell for this. If you liked the joke, you can share it and trick your friends. Also you can create a joke of your own clicking the button below!"

The Sunday Times Daily site has also generated other viral hoaxes, including one about Uruguay and Liverpool striker Luis Suarez testing positive for banned substances. Another one said England will get rematch against Uruguay in the World Cup, while another says school will be off for six months starting July 18.

Two more bogus stories about the drinking age going have gotten 10 million pageviews as well as millions of shares and "likes" on Facebook in the past several days. The Canada drinking age hoax appears to have been posted recently and has got 40,000 "likes" and shares social media.

 

 

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