Did British Prime Minister Boris Johnson or President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka (or any other well known figure) lose two daughters in the recent shooting an El Paso Walmart? No, that's not true: quasi-identical stories to that effect have been put out by a website that is known for publishing the same death hoaxes and false stories over and over again but with different people as their subject and set in different locations.
The Boris Johnson story originated from an article published by CBTV on August 4, 2019 titled "BREAKING NEWS: Boris Johnson loses two daughters to Texas Walmart shooting - El Paso News" (archived here) which opened:
Two daughters of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are among victims of Saturday's shooting at El Paso, Texas, which left at least 20 people dead, El Paso Police Department has said. Other media outlets report that Lara Lettice Johnson and Cassia Peaches Johnson sustained life-threatening injuries and passed on while on admission at the hospital. ...
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
BREAKING NEWS: Boris Johnson loses two daughters to Texas Walmart shooting - El Paso News
Two daughters of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are among victims of Saturday's shooting at El Paso, Texas, which left at least 20 people dead, El Paso Police Department has said. Other media outlets report that Lara Lettice Johnson and Cassia Peaches Johnson sustained life-threatening injuries and passed on while on admission at the hospital. ...
The Sri Lanka version of the hoax (archived here) was published shortly later:
BREAKING NEWS: Maithripala Sirisena loses two daughters to Texas Walmart shooting - El Paso Latest News
Two daughters of President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena are among victims of Saturday's shooting at El Paso, Texas, which left at least 20 people dead, El Paso Police Department has said. Other media outlets report that Dharani Sirisena and Chathurika Sirisena sustained life-threatening injuries and passed on while on admission at the hospital.
No reputable news sources made any mention of this "news" because it was made up but we expect more versions of the story to pop up in the future given that cbtvn.com has run several other hoaxes before that were repeated over time with different protagonists and locations. Here is a list of three recent (death) hoaxes that were being run by the site:
- Fake News: Celebrity Couple Did NOT Drown in Canada While Fishing
- Fake News: Club NOT Shut Down For Killing Patrons And Selling Them As Meat -- Same Story Set In Multiple Cities
- Fake News: Man Knocked Down by Vehicle in Toronto NOT Identified As Rugby Union coach Ben Ryan (or Lawrence Sichalwe or Sanath Jayasuriya or Kenneth Duremdes)
The site ususally spreads its hoaxes by spamming them into local Facebook groups using a variety of (likely hacked or sold) Facebook accounts. If you see something from CBTV.com, don't trust it, ever!
