<div class="body"><p>Hoaxes were so popular this year that there were even hoax hoaxes. “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alex-from-target-teenager-who-went-viral-for-his-good-looks-is-now-receiving-death-threats-9857605.html">Alex From Target</a>”, for example, went viral after a girl took a photo of it and posted it online. But then a Los Angeles start-up claimed it was a marketing experiment. Jaded after so many hoaxes, the world leapt to believe the story had been faked — but it turned out the story of Alex’s being spotted while working on the till was true.</p><p>Hoaxes have a tendency to reflect the news, worries and interests of the time. 2014 was a year of leaked nude photos, Ebola and more — all of which were reflected back with corresponding hoaxes.</p><p><strong>1. Three-breasted woman; September</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"595400","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"345","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"460"}}]]</p><p><span class="inline-image w460 leftAligned"><span class="inLineImageCaption">Alisha Hessler, who uses the name Jasmine Tridevil, in one of her YouTube videos</span> </span> <em>The hoax</em>: Woman calling herself Jasmine Tridevil pays $20,000 to have third breast created by plastic surgery, and attempts to use the modification to score a reality TV show.</p><p><em>The truth</em>: Everyone initially fell for the story, but it <a href="http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/the-entire-inglorious-timeline-of-the-threebreasted-woman-scandal--eygwpDbbSg">slowly became clear that it wasn’t true</a>. The pictures of the third breast came mostly from pictures taken by Tridevil herself, and it looked a lot less convincing when they weren’t. The person apparently behind the website seemed to have a history of internet hoaxes, too.</p><p><strong>2. Emma Watson nude pictures; September</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"595410","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"303","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"480"}}]]</p><p><span class="inline-image w460 leftAligned"><span class="inLineImageCaption">Actress Emma Watson is a high profile advocate of greater women’s rights throughout the world</span> </span> <em>The hoax</em>: A webpage appears counting down the time until nude photos of Emma Watson will be leaked to the public, supposedly by 4chan. The site was apparently part of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/the-fappening-after-the-third-wave-of-leaked-celebrity-photos-why-cant-we-stop-it-9763528.html">‘The Fappening’</a>, a huge leak of pictures of celebrities.</p><p><em>The truth</em>: The <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/the-emma-watson-nude-photo-leak-was-a-very-elaborate-hoax-9752810.html?dfkjgh">site was a fake</a> — referred to as a PR stunt by many, though it didn’t really provide PR for anyone — made by a group calling themselves Rantic Marketing.</p><p><strong>3. Toaster number equals minutes; December</strong></p><p><strong>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"595401","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"345","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"460"}}]]</strong></p><p><em>The hoax</em>: This myth rears its head every so often, and isn’t really attached to any news story. But it got very popular this month — with tweets expressing surprise to find that the numbers on the toaster refer to the amount of minutes it will stay in.</p><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b4053ba4bfb801ef2d741cd949b1aeaa" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" type="lazy-iframe" scrolling="no" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gN_PK5pXmIY?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span><p><em>The truth</em>: the minutes don’t mean very much at all, really, as the video below shows. Most tweeters were right that it’s more like ‘amount of toastyness’, though there’s no real standard.</p><p><strong>4. 17-year old on stock market; December</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"595402","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"345","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"460"}}]]</p><p><em>The hoax</em>: A 17-year-old school student, Mohammed Islam, made $72 million on the stock market, by trading shares on his lunch break.</p><p><em>The truth: </em>Islam and a friend appear to have faked the claims — initially revising them down and then reportedly calling them “total fiction”. The profits would have been almost impossible to make.</p><p><strong>5. World’s oldest tree accidentally cut down; December</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"595404","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"345","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"460"}}]]</p><p>(<span class="inline-image w460 leftAligned"><span class="inLineImageCaption"><em>Destruction of the rainforest, deforestation in Borneo</em>)</span></span></p><p><em>The hoax</em>: The world’s oldest tree is cut down by loggers in Peru.</p><p><em>The truth</em>: The <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/no-the-worlds-oldest-tree-has-not-been-accidentally-cut-down-by-loggers-in-the-amazon-9915272.html">story was entirely false</a>, made up by a fake news website called <em>World News Daily Report </em>and carried in various media organisations.</p><p><strong>6. Axl Rose dies, and so does Macauley Culkin, Betty White, Miley Cyrus, Phil Collins, The Undertaker, Wayne Knight and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/shovel-fight-girl-miranda-fugate-alive-and-well-9330387.html">shovel girl</a>; various</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"226659","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"397","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"512"}}]]</p><p><em>The hoax</em>: Almost every celebrity was said — on Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere — to have died at some point this year. The stories often caught on and went viral, before anyone had a chance to respond.</p><p><em>The truth</em>: The stories were rarely reported on news sites, but garnered millions of likes on Facebook. There were some tragic, real, deaths this year — but all of those above are still with us at the time of writing.</p><p><strong>7. Nasa confirms six days of darkness; December</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"595405","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"387","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"460"}}]]</p><p><em>The hoax</em>: The world will experience six days of straight darkness in 2014. A solar storm was to blame, causing "dust and space debris to become plentiful and thus block 90% sunlight”.</p><p><em>The truth</em>: Another fake news website (this time <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">Huzlers.com</span>), <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-confirms-six-days-of-darkness-in-december-no-they-really-dont--its-a-hoax-9822744.html">another fake story</a>. Solar storms are real, though they don’t cause that much disturbance; everything else about the story was fake.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>8. Giant crab in Whitstable; October</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"595406","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"345","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"460"}}]]</p><p>(<em><span class="inline-image w460 leftAligned"><span class="inLineImageCaption">Photo courtesy of Weird Whitstable <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.weirdwhitstable.co.uk</span></span></span></em><strong><span class="inline-image w460 leftAligned"><span class="inLineImageCaption"><span class="skimlinks-unlinked">)</span></span></span></strong></p><p><em>The hoax</em>: A giant crab is visible from an aerial photo of Whistable, on the Kent coast. It appears to be the size of a few cars.</p><p><em>The truth</em>: Likely just a well-doctored hoax photo (hopefully). There are some species as big as cars, but not as big as the picture and not in Whitstable harbour.</p><p><strong>9. Black-eyed children; September</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"595407","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"345","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"460"}}]]</p><p>(<span class="inline-image w460 leftAligned"><span class="inLineImageCaption"><em>The 911 call made by a cyclist who discovered a girl lying on the road after being attacked by her classmates in a disturbing tribute to the mythological internet character Slender Man has been released by police</em>.)</span></span></p><p><em>The hoax</em>: Ghostly black-eyed children are spotted in Cannock Chase, in Staffordshire. The <em>Daily Star</em> ran three front pages covering the supposed rise in sightings.</p><p><em>The truth</em>: The tale of the children has been around since the late 1990s, and has spread through online accounts. There’s no way of telling if there <em>aren’t</em> black-eyed children roaming the Staffordshire hills, of course, but there’s no real proof of them either.</p><p><strong>10. Ebola: illegal immigrant, Bono, Mischael Essian, zombie, Akon in a bubble; October</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"567938","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"358","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"512"}}]]</p><p><em>The hoax</em>: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/illegal-immigrant-with-ebola-missing-in-leicester-hoax-poster-appears-in-medical-centre-9813059.html">an illegal immigrant with Ebola is missing in Leicester</a>, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/bono-doesnt-have-ebola-and-these-hoax-stories-are-getting-ridiculous-9796323.html">U2’s Bono</a> and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/michael-essien-does-not-have-ebola-despite-twitter-rumours-9790135.html">former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien</a> have caught the disease, people were <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/weird-news/ebola-risen-from-the-dead-viral-zombie-story-is-a-complete-hoax-9777916.html">rising back up after dying from the disease</a>, and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/akon-didnt-perform-in-a-bubble-in-dr-congo-because-of-ebola-he-was-just-having-a-fun-time-for-himself-9772004.html">Akon performed in a bubble to keep himself from catching Ebola</a>.</p><p><em>The truth</em>: When horrifying and somewhat unknown stories hit the news, speculation and outright lies often fill the space around it. The dreadful Ebola outbreak was one of those — and all the stories above were false. They are at best misleading and stoke fears — at worst packed with racist and superior assumptions.</p><p><strong>11. Chinese passport boy’s drawing; June</strong></p><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"595408","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"345","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"460"}}]]</p><p><em>The hoax</em>: A four-year-old boy defaces his Chinese father’s passport so badly that he can’t get home from South Korea. The story is posted on Weibo and goes viral from there.</p><p><em>The truth</em>: The supposed drawing looked a lot like it was done on Microsoft Paint, and the scribbles conveniently covered up all the important information on the passport. It wasn’t a confirmed fake — but it looked a lot like one.</p></div>
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