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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke August 24, 2023

U.S. Navy: Story about SEALs rescuing child sex slaves in San Francisco isn’t true

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  • The U.S. Navy says this story isn’t true.
 
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An undated clip from a website called Israeli News Live recounts a supposed "child sex trade busted" in San Francisco Bay as the web show’s host shares "an amazing story from a minister friend."

The upshot: According to the host, the U.S. Navy SEALs rescued 807 children from a barge off the California coast where they were being held captive as sex slaves. 

An Instagram post sharing the clip included the text: "Sex slave ship found they rescued eight hundred seventeen children!"

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

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But the SEALs rescued neither 807 nor 817 child sex slaves. A Navy spokesperson told PolitiFact this claim is inaccurate. We also found no credible news sources or other stories to corroborate the allegations in the video. 

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We found a similar story citing anonymous sources and published June 27 on Real Raw News, a website that regularly runs fabricated stories.

We rate this claim False.


 

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