There wasn’t a communications blackout in Washington, DC, on Sunday, but #dcblackout trended on Twitter anyway, thanks to some extremely distressing tweets telling people that, mysteriously, no messages were getting out from the nation’s capital. The tweets, Reddit posts, and Facebook messages about the “blackout” got thousands of shares, fueled by pleas to spread the information widely and ominous warnings about what would happen next to protesters.
But I can tell you that there wasn’t a blackout because I live in DC, and had to assure worried friends that my internet was working as normal. Despite this, the hashtag stayed trending for hours on Monday, with some people questioning its claims, others dismissing attempts to debunk it, and no one clear on exactly how this rumor spread so far.
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Source: How to protect yourself online from misinformation right now | MIT Technology Review