Well, The Babylon Bee really hit it out of the park with this one:
Democrats Call For Flags To Be Flown At Half-Mast To Grieve Death Of Soleimani https://t.co/MR0FIaFKsv
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 3, 2020
As of the writing of this post, the article has been shared over 500,000 times on Facebook, and counting. And this is problematic, to libs at least:
A post from a satirical website has been shared more than 500k times saying the DNC called for the flag to be at half-mast because of Soleimani. Some family members just called bc their Republican friends on FB are circulating it like it's legit. We have a lot of work to do, all.
— Cindy Otis (Pre-order TRUE OR FALSE now!) (@CindyOtis_) January 5, 2020
It’s also been shared almost 70,000 times on Twitter:
For those asking, it's on the Babylon Bee.
You'll see it's also circulating on Twitter. Many accounts sharing it as funny satire, some sharing it because they say it's satire but still close to the truth, and others that appear to not know at all that it's satire. pic.twitter.com/9XwR71u1LX
— Cindy Otis (Pre-order TRUE OR FALSE now!) (@CindyOtis_) January 5, 2020
According to this CNN reporter, this is more social media engagement than the top articles from the NYT or CNN get in an entire week:
To put this in perspective, this is the same number of engagements the top NY Times and CNN stories on Facebook had over the past week.
A lot of people sharing this "satirical" story on Facebook don't know it is satire. https://t.co/HnDjuqw2si
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) January 5, 2020
Oh, boo. Don’t be jealous!
Having a disclaimer buried somewhere on your site that says it’s “satire” seems like a good way to get around a lot of the changes Facebook has made to reduce the spread of clickbait and misinformation.
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) January 5, 2020
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