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Hoax Article Stating that the Legal Drinking Age in the US and the UK has been Increased Fools Millions


Published: Jul 24, 2014 01:02 PM EDT

Hoax Article Stating that the Legal Drinking Age in the US and the UK has been Increased Fools Millions 

It is interesting how people never get to read the fine print. This point was especially emphasized weeks ago when a hoax article was posted by a trickster site citing that the legal age for drinking within the united states and the United Kingdom was going to be raised to the age of 25 and would also be raised to 23 in Canada.  Obviously this was cause for an uproar were social media was on fire with people complaining about the injustice both on Facebook and Twitter.

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The fake news was whole heartedly taken as the truth because among other things, the site uses logos that are authentic news sources so that it can provide authenticity to itself. The site uses logos from ABC, BBC which give the impression that the sources of the information on the articles posted have been verified for consumption. The ones that had a keen eye for detail were able to notice a disclaimer saying, "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". This can be used as a marketing stunt for such sites trying to get on the radar and they are rightfully granted to do so anyway even if it hinges on the fine print.

The interesting thing is that this is just one of the incidents that have been on the rise concerning hoax articles. There was one such hoax targeting Netflix saying they are not going to showcase the next season of 'Orange is the new Black' because of sexist reasons from the CEO of the company himself. Of course there was an uproar and people even threatened to pull their subscription, but alas they found that it was a hoax. This recent post about legal age being raised for drinking has gained about 10 million page views on Facebook as yet.