Did a ship named "Triump" and operated by Carnival overturn and sink? No, that's not true: some joker posted a story about that to a prank website that allows anyone to upload any headline, image and description in order to create a fake story. It is not real despite the fact that it went massively viral, racking up tens of thousands of Facebook engagements in a few hours time.
The story originated from an article published on React365 on November 7, 2018 titled "Carnival cruise ship Triumph overturns and sinks." (archived here) which opened:
The Carnival cruise ship Triumph ran aground and overturned after striking an underwater rock off the coast of Mexico while coming into port the evening of November 5th 2018 resulting in 32 deaths. There may have been additional people not listed as on board, so the death toll could possibly be higher. The search for bodies was canceled after a small tropical storm came in and resumed the morning of the 6th. Scuba teams are still recovering bodies, stay connected for any new information pertaining to this devastating accident.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Carnival cruise ship Triumph overturns and sinks.
The Carnival cruise ship Triumph ran aground and overturned after striking an underwater rock off the coast of Mexico while coming into port the evening of November 5th 2018 resulting in 32 deaths. There may have been additional people not listed as on board, so the death toll could possibly be higher. The search for bodies was canceled after a small tropical storm came in and resumed the morning of the 6th. Scuba teams are still recovering bodies, stay connected for any new information pertaining to this devastating accident.
The image used to illustrate the hoax is actually from the 2012 disaster with the Costa Concordia cruise ship which ran aground and capsized near the Tuscany coast in Italy, killing 32 people:
Costa Concordia disaster - Wikipedia
An investigation focused on shortcomings in the procedures followed by the crew and the actions of the Italian captain, who left the ship prematurely. About 300 passengers were left on board, most of whom were rescued by helicopter or motorboats in the area.
The site that published the story is a prank website where users can submit their own headline, description and photo to create realistic looking prank news articles.
Users don't even need to upload their own image, there is a built-in search function that will pull an appropriate image from Google image search.
The site is part of a larger network of prank sites all using the same basic layout but sometimes in different languages. It appears to be run by a Belgian company named Mediavibes or Media Vibes which is managed by a man named Nicolas Gouriou according to registration records.
Each site in the network comes with a disclaimer (sometimes translated into a different language) that reads:
This website is an entertainment website, jokes are created by users. These are humourous jokes, fantasy, fictional, that should not be seriously taken or as a source of information.
So don't fall for this prank now that we've warned you about it!
We wrote about react365.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Metal Legend Rob Halford NOT Found Unresponsive in San Diego Home
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- Fake News: Salem Oregon NOT to Implement Sharia Law
- Fake News: Williamsburg, Kentucky NOT Voted Methamphetamine Capitol Of The State
- Fake News: Two Great White Sharks NOT Found Swimming In Laurel Lake Near London, Kentucky
