“Disney and Google bought the rights to the first King James Bible.”
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Disney and Google now own the rights to the King James Bible? That’s satire
Some social media users are bracing for big changes to the Bible.
"Disney and Google bought the rights to the first King James Bible, they’re already changing it," a man says in a video shared in a June 28 Facebook post.
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.)
The man in the video offered no evidence to support this claim. And though we looked for credible sources to corroborate the allegation, we found none.
Instead, we discovered a July 2018 post on the satirical Babylon Bee website, which ran a story with this headline: "Disney buys rights to the Bible, plans 37 sequels."
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The King James Bible was first printed in London in 1611. Its rights in the United Kingdom are vested in the British crown, according to Cambridge University Press, and administered by the Crown’s patentee — Cambridge University Press.
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If The Walt Disney Co. and Google, part of Alphabet, acquired the Bible’s rights, it would draw global news coverage, but there’s none.
This claim is unfounded, and originated on a satire site.
We rate it False.
Our Sources
Facebook post, June 28, 2024
Blog post, July 9, 2018
Cambridge University Press, Rights and Permissions: KJV, visited July 3, 2024
New York Public Library, First printing of the King James Bible, visited July 3, 2024
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Disney and Google now own the rights to the King James Bible? That’s satire
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