Was L.A. rapper YG shot four times in a drive by shooting? No, that's not true: the story was uploaded by someone to a prank website where it went viral and the news kept spreading even after the article was taken down by the site.
The story originated from an article published on React365 on April 1, 2019 titled "L.A Rapper YG Shot 4 Times In Drive By Shooting" (archived here) which opened:
According To TMZ, L.A Rapper YG Shot 4 Times In Drive By Shooting While Paying Respect To Nipsey Hussle, Hours After Being Shot. According To Multiple Sources, YG Was Confronted By A Rival Gang After A Big Confrontation. YG Was Rushed To Near Hospital And Appears To Be In Critical Condition.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
L.A Rapper YG Shot 4 Times In Drive By Shooting
According To TMZ, L.A Rapper YG Shot 4 Times In Drive By Shooting While Paying Respect To Nipsey Hussle, Hours After Being Shot. According To Multiple Sources, YG Was Confronted By A Rival Gang After A Big Confrontation. YG Was Rushed To Near Hospital And Appears To Be In Critical Condition.
There is no mention of the "news" on TMZ and the site where the story was originally published has taken it down, replacing it with the message: "It was a bad joke and has been deleted! ".
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!
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes react365.com as:
A website that lets users make up headlines and stories and share them on social media.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about react365.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Gérard Jugnot Did NOT Die This Morning
- Fake News: Carnival Cruise Ship Triumph Did NOT Overturn And Sink
- Fake News: Metal Legend Rob Halford NOT Found Unresponsive in San Diego Home
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Cut Off His D*ck To Show Faithfulness To Estranged Girlfriend
- Fake News: Salem Oregon NOT to Implement Sharia Law
