Thursday, November 10, 2016

A Viral Hoax Claims Canada Received Millions Of Immigration Requests From Americans

The Canadian immigration website did crash on Election Day, but this claim is false.

Donald Trump's stunning victory in the US presidential election led to a spike in Google searches for "moving to Canada," and caused Canada's immigration website to crash on Election Day.

Donald Trump's stunning victory in the US presidential election led to a spike in Google searches for "moving to Canada," and caused Canada's immigration website to crash on Election Day.

Officials later confirmed that tens of thousands of Americans were on the site when it went down.

cic.gc.ca

Those real events created an opportunity for hoaxsters to try and fool people. Two Canadian teenagers running a trio of fake news websites were recently profiled by BuzzFeed News, and this week they scored a big hit with the ridiculous claim that 10 million Americans had applied to immigrate:

Those real events created an opportunity for hoaxsters to try and fool people. Two Canadian teenagers running a trio of fake news websites were recently profiled by BuzzFeed News, and this week they scored a big hit with the ridiculous claim that 10 million Americans had applied to immigrate:

The story is completely false but managed to rack up over 50,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook.

The Global Sun / Via theglobalsun.com

The hoax got a big boost from a radio station in Trinidad and Tobago, which posted it on Facebook as if it's a real story. That posts was shared more than 3,000 times.

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Facebook: slam100.5

Meanwhile, many Americans (and some Canadians) are sharing it on Facebook like it's real. "Keep in mind," said one man in Texas, "Canada doesn't allow people to own guns. But the beer is way more alcoholic."

Meanwhile, many Americans (and some Canadians) are sharing it on Facebook like it's real. "Keep in mind," said one man in Texas, "Canada doesn't allow people to own guns. But the beer is way more alcoholic."

He's laughably wrong on the first claim, deliciously correct on the second.

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from BuzzFeed - USNews https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/hoax?utm_term=4ldqpia

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