Philnetizen.com, a site that has previously produced several inaccurate stories, published yet another misleading report: it falsely claims in its headline that the Iranian government has offered a bounty of US$80 million for United States President Donald Trump’s head.
On Jan. 6, three days after the U.S. Department of Defense announced it killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds force commander Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike under Trump’s orders, philnetizen.com published an article bearing the headline: “IRAN, NAG-ALOK NG $80M PATONG SA ULO NI US PRES. DONALD TRUMP KASUNOD NG PAGPATAY SA TOP IRANIAN MILITARY OFFICIAL (Iran offers $80M bounty for head of US Pres. Donald Trump after the killing of top Iranian military official).”
This is inaccurate.
Philnetizen.com’s report is an incomplete repost of a Jan. 5 story by online news media International Business Times which originally bore the headline, “$80 Million Bounty For Trump’s Head Announced On Iran TV.”
In its content plagiarized from IB Times, philnetizen.com reported that it was only an unidentified eulogist who called for Trump’s head and announced the US$ 80-million reward during a live broadcast of Soleimani’s funeral procession on Iran state television station Channel 1.
The eulogist, who has yet to be identified, called on all 80 million Iranians to each contribute an American dollar to create the US$80-million reward pot, a “gift” for “anyone who brings the head of the person who ordered the murder of the grand figure of our revolution.”
Apart from its false headline, philnetizen.com also misleadingly left out the part of the IB Times report that said the bounty “has not been confirmed by Iranian officials.”
Some media outlets have also picked up the utterance of the eulogist and took it as a pronouncement from the Iranian government, although no official statement on the matter has been released.
Philnetizen.com’s misleading article received over 26,600 interactions on Facebook (FB), and could have reached over 745,000 social media users. Its top traffic generators are FB pages Pilipinas Press, PhilNetizen, and BANGSAMORO WATCH.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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