A viral Facebook posting saying that a baby was injured in a car accident and their parents need money isn’t real.
The post reads: “This baby got in a terrible care [sic] accident And his parents dont have the money to support the surgery so facebook an CNN are willing the pay half the expenses, facebook is donating money for every like, share, comment.”
It then says that to like the article, Facebook and CNN will donate $1, a comment will donate $5, and a share will donate $10.
The post includes a photo of a mother, father, and a baby.
According to hoax-debunking website Snopes, “companies do not fund the medical care of sick or injured children by donating money based on the number of times a particular item is forwarded via e-mail, posted or liked on Facebook, spread via text messaging, or otherwise shared online. The concept that they do is one of the longest-running hoaxes in the history of the Internet.”
The photo of the mother, baby, and father was of an infant who died hours after a rare birth defect, according to a report from WMCTV in Tennessee.
“The bottom line is that there’s no injured little boy in need of good-hearted souls willing to use Facebook’s ”share“ feature to pass along the photo and attached information to their social network friends. If you want to make a difference in a sick child’s life, the best way is still the old-fashioned one: donate your money or your time, not a text message or Facebook wall post,” says Snopes in its conclusion.
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