Fake News: Senate NOT On Lockdown After Receiving Credible Threat From Known Killers

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Senate NOT On Lockdown After Receiving Credible Threat From Known Killers

Is the U.S. Senate on lockdown after credible threats from known killers? No, that's not true: a Christian-themed satire website wrote an article based on a tweet from Planned Parenthood Action in order to criticize their view on abortion but the threat part is entirely made up, there is no real lockdown going on.

The story originated from an article published by The Babylon Bee on October 4, 2018 titled "Senate On Lockdown After Receiving Credible Threat From Known Killers" (archived here) which opened:

WASHINGTON, D.C.--All Republican members of the United States Senate have been placed on official lockdown after known murderers publicly made ominous threats of violence against them.

The group of murderous terrorists, Planned Parenthood, posted on Twitter, "Roses are red / Violets are blue / Senators vote NO on Kavanaugh / Or else we're coming for you."

"We are taking this threat very seriously, considering the organization is known to murder hundreds each and every day," said a Secret Service official. "We receive threats all the time, but we have to gauge how serious they are based on whether or not they come from credible sources. This source is very credible. They have killed people, are killing people as we speak and will kill people again. So we can't take this lightly."

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail so some of them might have been alarmed enough to think it was real:

Senate On Lockdown After Receiving Credible Threat From Known Killers

WASHINGTON, D.C.--All Republican members of the United States Senate have been placed on official lockdown after known murderers publicly made ominous threats of violence against them.The group of murderous terrorists, Planned Parenthood, posted on Twitter, "Roses are red / Violets are blue / Senators vote NO on Kavanaugh / Or else we're coming f ...

The tweet (archived here) was indeed real but it seems more like an attempt at humor or poetry than a threat:

And of course "The Babylon Bee" comes with following dislaimer on every page:

The Babylon Bee is Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire.

Some of their greatest past hits include:

With a track record like that it is clear that you shouldn't take anything posted on the site seriously and you definitely shouldn't confuse it with real news.

We wrote about babylonbee.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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  Maarten Schenk

Maarten Schenk is the co-founder and COO/CTO of Lead Stories and an expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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