Did Texas truck driver Roger Jones get his memory back after five years in a coma because Facebook sent him a copy of all his personal information? No, that did not really happen. The fake story was invented by a satire website from India and later copied by an American fauxtire site.
The original story was published on March 26, 2018 by Faking News and was titled "Facebook helps coma patient deal with memory loss by sending him all his personal information " (archived here). That story opened:
Amidst all the global criticism that Facebook is facing, there was some good news for the social media giant on the social responsibility front.
A Texas man who was in coma for 5 years managed to to reconstruct his life after Facebook shared all his personal information. Roger Jones, who drives a truck for living met with an accident which later led to him being in coma, woke up with a blank slate a week back. He had no recollection of who he was and even failed to recognize his family members.
Would you have believed a story on social media that looked like this?
Facebook helps coma patient deal with memory loss by sending him all his personal information
Amidst all the global criticism that Facebook is facing, there was some good news for the social media giant on the social responsibility front.
The domain name of the link is a dead giveaway. But maybe the copy on 8shit.net has more succes:
Facebook Helps Coma Patient Deal With Memory Loss By Sending Him All His Personal Information
A Texas man who was in a coma for about 5 years was able to reconstruct his social, economic and political life after Facebook sent him all his information. Roger Jones, a truck driver who had an accident that put him in coma, woke up with severe memory loss last week.
We wrote about fakingnews.firstpost.com before two years ago when they ran a satirical piece that went viral worldwide: Uber DID NOT Announce UberWALK, Assistant Will NOT Hold Your Hand
In case the name Faking News doesn't give it away the site also carries a disclaimer at the bottom of each page:
Disclaimer: Content of this website is a work of fiction. Readers are advised not to confuse the "news reports" of Faking News as being genuine and true.
There is also a long "about page" that explains the purpose behind the site. Here is an excerpt:
Faking News is a website that has news content with no reliable sources. We simply fake news to attract your attention. And we are honest about admitting it.
We aim to provide clean humor in shape of fake news reports, a style not unique with us. We try to be funny, most of the times.
We also try to be satirical and sarcastic about various elements of Indian social life and news media. We try to act smart and intellectual, sometimes.
Being humorous or satirical is a hugely challenging job, so excuse us if you think we are just being stupid.
The site is part of the Indian news website First Post run by the Network 18 media conglomerate.
