Fake news has made it to Snapchat

Joining the club.
Joining the club.
Image: Reuters/Thomas White
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It seems no social network is truly safe from the scourge of disinformation.

A message has been appearing around Snapchat, pretending to be from the team behind the app, telling users if they don’t save this message and send it to all their friends, all their photos stored in their Memories would be wiped, Business Insider reported April 24. It’s unclear if anyone fell for the typo-laden message:

Snapchat’s support team responded to the the chain message’s prevalence and other similar messages, calling them “#fakenews” on Twitter:

Chains like these spread on messaging-heavy apps every so often. Facebook’s WhatsApp had a similar hoax earlier this month about a video called “Martinelli,” which would apparently irreparably hack your phone if viewed. It was, unsurprisingly, fake.

Snapchat has been relatively free of the fake and disingenuous content that has plagued networks like Facebook and Twitter, especially since the 2016 US presidential election. It’s even touted its Snap Map feature, where users can watch snaps from around the world in near-real-time, as an example of how it’s mitigating fake news about important events. But, sadly, it seems that many of Snapchat’s users are just as gullible as countless generations of technology users before them.