Fake News: The nine lives of a McDonald's halal hoax!

The nine lives of the cats are legendary.

Whether it is true or not, the kitties does seem to bounce back from tough calls.

However, a hoax claiming the halal certification of McDonald’s has been withdrawn is bound to  equal the nine lives of the kitties.

The hoax has survived 8 good years.

Whatever the halal agency or McDonald’s says, the hoax is popular with Muslims around the world.

This particular hoax is related to the South African McDonald’s.

How to beat the odds that such a hoax could survive for so long?

In 2017, the South African Halal agency issued a press release.

It was as simple as making public – once again – the current halal certification of the McDonald’s brand in South Africa.

It came with a note saying this is the official MJC Halaal Trust media response to a recurrent circulating email.

It said the email has been cirulating since 2011 falsely claiming the withdrawal of the certificate.

The information is making the rounds in Mauritius in particular.

The hoax gets a different flavour this time, with the mention of a so-called kitchen office in Florida. 

That office would have proven that the products from McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut and Domino for example contains pork.

This hoax has expanded to Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore and who knows where else?

Nevertheless, the question is why do people have to believe anything they read on the internet?

And why do people keep forwarding messages they receive without fact checking?

The problem is that most people today are becoming the so-called citizen journalists.

But to be a journalist you need to fact-check.

Before you forward messages that have no origins and no claims of ownership, fact-check with Mr Google.

Then you forward it, adding a note that you have done a fact checking and the information is true, or false!

That way, the citizen journalists will do a great job in defeating those who are bent on accusing everyone of spreading ‘fake news’