The above image, of a badly photoshopped 'giant squid' which allegedly washed ashore in California, was posted to the official Facebook page of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party's Central Committee.
Giant squid washes ashore in California. The sea creature was 160 feet and is the second massive sea creature discovered ashore in recent months. Both came from the waters near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. Scientists suspect their gigantic size is caused by the genetic mutations that that triggered uncontrolled growth – or “radioactive gigantism.”
While its bad enough that the People's Daily is taking advantage of a social networking platform that Chinese citizens are prevented from using, its even worse that a supposed newspaper posted an image debunked with a 10 second Google search.
According to Snopes, the photo first appeared on the satirical news site Lightly Braised Turnip, before being mistaken for real news by idiots.
This isn't the first time the People's Daily has fallen for satire, in 2012 the paper fell for an Onion article claiming that Kim Jong-un had been named the sexiest man alive.
Screencap for posterity:
[h/t: Bill Bishop, Austin Ramzy]
0 User Comments