Reuters: Fact Checking One Misinformed Post at a Time
- GroovyHayley
- Feb 5, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 1, 2022
Reuters is a fact checking platform that was first created in October of 1851, founded by Paul Reuter. Throughout the 170 years the company has been operating, they have fact checked thousands of different online data containing misinformation. Today I am discussing a recent circulating rumor that was fact checked by Reuters on January 26th, 2022.
A member of the Michigan community was documented claiming that litter boxes were placed inside school restrooms to accommodate the students who identified as "furries" during a Midland Public School board of education meeting on December 20th, 2021. The false accusation made by Lisa Hansen can be viewed here on Youtube. "Furries" are a growing community of people who have interests in anthropomorphized creatures, such as cats or dogs. This outrageous litter box statement quickly started to spread around the internet like wildfire, causing the Midland Public Schools superintendent, Michael E. Sharrow, to release his own statement addressing the rumor, as shown below.
Despite the statement from the superintendent, the false rumors continued to fly around multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. A tweet was posted by @libsoftiktok on January 21st, 2022 stating, "WATCH: At a recent school board meeting, it was revealed that a Michigan school placed a LITTER BOXES in the bathroom for students that identify as cats. Unbelievable". The tweet also includes the video of Lisa Hansen's false statement against Midland Public Schools. Another Twitter user, @tanersteve, released a tweet on February 1st, 2022 that included, "I thought I heard everything but there is a school where some kids are Identifying as animals like a cat etc. and they have in the unisex bathroom cat litter box where they go to the bathroom this is a true fact this is the twilight zone on steroids...", further spreading the false accusation made by Lisa Hansen. These 2 tweets are both opinionated and can easily be disproved by objective evidence found in the Midland Public Schools superintendent's statement. These untrustworthy tweets are also wonderful examples of how quickly misinformation spreads throughout the internet, causing confusion and hatred among users.
Reuters decided to step in to help end these rumors, and using their fact checking methodology, they determined the original source of the misinformation, paired with consult experts, and uncovered the truthful information released by the superintendent. Reuters also included all supporting evidence links in order to be transparent with the viewers of their fact checked post. They came to the conclusion that based on all the evidence, the original source of information was false, there are NOT litter boxes inside the student bathrooms at the Midland Public Schools.
Due to the scale of this rumor, multiple news outlets have joined in to help lay this misinformed accusation to rest. Amongst those news outlets was the New York Post, which was founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton. The N.Y. Post article is credible and consists of the same objective evidence as the Reuters fact checked post, confirming that Lisa Hansen's accusation was false.
Sources
https://nypost.com/2022/01/26/school-boss-debunks-rumor-that-they-provided-kitty-litter-for-furries/
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