GenZedong

All my friends are sharing posts by influencers claiming what's in the title even though a quick google search verifies that it is false. I never realised just how dangerous social media could be until now.

Googling the title at the time of posting this you will see a few mainstream media articles on Iran sentencing a single protestor to death for setting a government building on fire, now I don't support the death penalty but that is a far cry from the claim in the title. A few fact checking websites are saying that the claim is false and that only one person has been sentenced to death. But below that are an ocean of niche "news" websites that appear to make their money from pure outrage claiming that Iran is going to go through with this.

My prediction is that people will flood to these "news" websites after seeing the social media posts, boosting their traffic and pushing them to the front page of google. After this more credible sources will cite the propaganda websites, and in a week's time this will be a widely accepted fact. When eventually nothing actually happens everyone will have forgotten about it completely, the only difference will be new sanctions against Iran and more money to the US military.