A roundup of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, headlines of the week. None of these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these out; here are the real facts:
NOT REAL: Retired MI5 Agent Confesses On Deathbed: ‘I Killed Princess Diana’
THE FACTS: A piece on a site called the Anti News Network renews a take on conspiracy theories blaming British agencies or the royal family for the princess’ August 1997 death in Paris. A coroner’s jury ruled in 2008 that Diana and boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed were killed by the reckless actions of their driver and paparazzi. Investigators testified that no British government agency was involved in her death. MI5, Britain’s domestic security agency, has a policy of not identifying current or past employees. The ANN story cites as its source the website yournewswire.com, which says it makes no representations about the accuracy of the information it posts.
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NOT REAL: NASA’S KEPLER TELESCOPE DISCOVERED ARTIFICIAL ALIEN MEGASTRUCTURE
THE FACTS: Some scientists speculated that an unusual light pattern coming from a star about 1,400 light years away could be the result of megastructures built by aliens to surround the star and harness its energy. A headline from univverse.org suggests the theory has been confirmed, but the authors of a study about the light pattern wrote that it was most likely the result of comet and planet-like space debris passing nearby.
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NOT REAL: Sarah Huckabee Blames Clinton For Comey’s Removal: “If She’d Confessed, He Wouldn’t Have Had To Commit All Those Atrocities Against Her”