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Fake news generator claims Alabama football disqualified from NCAA title hunt
A Facebook post that claimed Alabama’s Crimson Tide was disqualified from the national collegiate football championship is a fake article made on a prank news website.
We first saw this post on Oct. 30, 201, with the headline "Alabama football Crimson Tide disqualified from national championship" on breakingnews365.net.
An easy giveaway that the news is fake: The post contain only two sentences, claiming that the "Tide will not be rolling into the national championship game" and their "previous years title’s may be stripped from the team." (The bad grammar is another tell.)
But the Alabama team, undefeated and near the top of college football’s rankings, has not been disqualified and their previous titles are not under threat. The team’s next game is against Louisiana State University Tigers on Nov. 4 as scheduled.
This is just one of the many trending "prank" stories featured on Breakingnews365.net.
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A quick scroll to the bottom of one of these pages would reveal a disclaimer that says the site contains news "created by users" and therefore, "should not be seriously taken or as a source of information." Yet these pages are still shared as if they were true.
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Breakingnews365.net is another prank site run by Nicolas Gouriou, the Belgian owner of a multitude of prank news sites.
As we have previously reported, readers should be skeptical of stories found on these type of sites.
The Crimson Tide is still eligible for the playoffs, so we rate this Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Breakingnews365.net, "Alabama football Crimson Tide disqualified from national championship", accessed Oct. 31, 2017
CBSsports.com, College Football Rankings, accessed Nov. 1, 2017
CBSsports.com, College Football Schedule, accessed Nov. 1, 2017
WhoIs.com, Breakingnews365.net, accessed Nov. 1, 2017.
FakeNewsCodex.com, "Nicolas Gouriou Network," accessed Nov. 1, 2017
PolitiFact, "User-generated prank post falsely says Tulsa high school burned down", Oct. 23, 2017.
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Fake news generator claims Alabama football disqualified from NCAA title hunt
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