According to a report that is currently traversing the interwebs causing angst and consternation is it travels, more than 10,000 people have signed a petition asking that the American flag be changed to the rainbow flag.
The report notes:
The rainbow flag, commonly the gay pride flag and LGBT pride flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements. The flag is used as a symbol of gay pride and is now used worldwide.
The report includes images depicting what the new rainbow American flag might look like and features a cartoon which shows the Confederate flag being replaced by a rainbow flag. The report also discusses the recent controversy in the United States surrounding the flying of the Confederate flag.
However, the ‘rainbow flag petition’ claims in the report are false. There is no credible information about a petition like the one described. The story cites ‘recent reports’ as stating that ‘more than 10,000 people have signed a petition to change American flag to rainbow flag’. However, it does not link to or identify any of these alleged reports. Nor does it provide any links to the supposed petition itself.
In fact, the story is just a work of fiction. It comes from the fake-news, ‘saterical’ website, NotAllowedTo.com. The sites “About Us” page notes:
NotAllowedTo.com is intended for entertainment purposes only. Our website and social media content uses the most notorious urban and satirical entertainment news with the most shocking headlines and articles.
However, the site presents its fake articles in news format and the About Us page is not clearly or easily accessible from these articles. Thus, many people are apt to take the site’s material as real news and share it with their friends in good faith.
Rather tellingly, the site’s About Us disclaimer is almost identical in wording to the disclaimer featured on the notorious fake-news website Huzlers.com.
The cartoon strip depicting the lowering of the Confederate flag and its replacement by the rainbow flag is a popular recent meme that has circulated in other contexts and has no direct connection to the fake rainbow flag petition claims made in the bogus NotAllowedTo.com article.
Given the increasing number of fake-news websites that, between them, churn out a seemingly endless stream of drivel tricked up as news, it is a good idea to verify any strange or unusual stories that come your way before you share them. Searching on a news portal such as Google News will usually reveal if a circulating story is true.
Example
The New American Flag – U.S. Citizens Sign Petition For Rainbow Flag
According to recent reports more than 10,000 people have signed a petition to change American flag to rainbow flag.
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
