On Monday night, we all got a brief taste of what life would be like if Snapchat shut down, and we did not like it.
Luckily, the app was back up and running by Tuesday morning… but not without rumours that it would soon be closing its proverbial doors for good.
Whispers had begun to circulate online, spreading like wildfire thanks to people who see news from websites with names like pranknews247.fake and treat it like it’s The New York Times, but Snapchat itself has come out and quashed the talk.
Linking to an article by debunking website Snopes, Snapchat Support shared the message “We’re not shutting down. #fakenews” with their Twitter followers.
We're not shutting down. #fakenews https://t.co/9apoTU8fXa
— Snapchat Support (@snapchatsupport) November 7, 2017
The article from Snopes explains that the rumour originated as part of a prank campaign where internet users would see headlines such as “Snapchat shutting down by the end of 2017” only to be greeted by a message like “You’ve been pranked!” once they clicked the link.
Sadly, not enough people actually clicked the link, and instead accepted the fake news headline as gospel. Because that’s where we’re at in 2017.
