‘Nasa Confirms Earth Will Experience 6 Days of Total Darkness’ Fake News Story Goes Viral
By Simi John
Thousands of people have been duped by a fake news story claiming that Nasa has forecast a total blackout of earth for six days in December.
The story, entitled “Nasa Confirms Earth Will Experience 6 Days of Total Darkness in December 2014!” originated from Huzlers.com, a website well known for publishing fake stories with sensational headlines.
The bogus report read: “Nasa has confirmed that the Earth will experience 6 days of almost complete darkness and will happen from the dates Tuesday the 16 – Monday the 22 in December. The world will remain, during these three days, without sunlight due to a solar storm, which will cause dust and space debris to become plentiful and thus, block 90% sunlight.
“The head of Nasa Charles Bolden who made the announcement and asked everyone to remain calm. This will be the product of a solar storm, the largest in the last 250 years for a period of 216 hours total.
“Despite the six days of darkness soon to come, officials say that the earth will not experience any major problems, since six days of darkness is nowhere near enough to cause major damage to anything.”
Adding on, the article also carried a made-up quote from Nasa scientist Earl Godoy, saying: “We will solely rely on artificial light for the six days, which is not a problem at all.”
Many Twitter users believed the fake news report, and expressed their shock.
https://twitter.com/hijanellamarie/status/526240818839814144