2 like 23 dislike
in General Factchecking by Genius (46.3k points)
Disney bought Jeffrey Epstein's island to build a theme park.
by (180 points)
0 0
This statement is clearly untrue. I have surfed through this website time and time again and have seen in their "about" section of the website. The first paragraph in this website states that "Mouse Trap News is the world’s best satire and parody site. We write fake stories about Disney Parks stuff. From Disney Park announcements to Disney Hotel and resort news to made-up Disney partnerships, you can be assured that anything you read here is not true, real, or accurate, but it is fun." Aside from this, there is no evidence about the fact that Disney had even considering buying Jeffrey Epstein's Island to build a theme park. In fact, another website had also fact-checked this and proved that this was wrong the second this "fact" or "news" had been released.

https://mousetrapnews.com/about/

https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/article-about-disney-buying-epstein-island-is-satire-2024-04-22/
by (190 points)
0 0
This claim is completely untrue. Immediately after doing extra research, the first few things to pop up on a google search claim that this is complete satire and untruthful. This is a pretty recent article and it is clearly trying to use clickbait to jump on the Epstein island story that surfaced around the time of the article. One major thing that stood out when looking at this article is that there is no name given, only the news source that posted this claim is seen, and the quality of the post seems very low. After doing more than just a google search, I found that both Snoops, and USA Today both wrote this article off as satire. USA Today claims that this is from a satirical website, however "The Facebook post is an example of what could be called stolen satire." as they say. The satire seems to come from the fact that the allegations on what happened on Epstein Island are horrific, which is just the opposite of a Disney park. There are false claims in this article as well, most prominent one having to be that Epstein was "great" and has now passed away. While the headline does in fact aline with the article, this seems like just a joke of a post, only used to make people laugh that have a twisted sense of humor.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/04/12/epstein-island-sold-to-disney-satire-fact-check/73292777007/
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/disney-bought-epsteins-island/

https://mousetrapnews.com/the-walt-disney-company-buys-epstein-island/
by (190 points)
0 0
Yeah, and there are many different websites that back the claim up that this is false, such as USA Today, and Snopes. This is completely satirical and suppose to be a joke, however Facebook users see this claim without the original website, which is known for posting fake news, which is why so many people actually believed this.
by (190 points)
0 0
That is a really good point about social media. Things that are clear jokes can be taken out of context and then people online will think that the information they receive is true. This is why misinformation spreads so easily. Social media makes it so easy for posts to go up that can spread so much falseness.
by Newbie (200 points)
0 0
While reading this article, I can easily tell that this is entirely satire even down to the "evidence" with who the sources talked to. The website that was used, MouseTrap News also has many other satirical articles that are meant to be a joke. There is no real evidence and no other sources that back up its outlandish claims, thus leading the article to clearly be fake. But, because this article was posted on social media, the people were quick to believe it without really reading the contents in the article.

59 Answers

1 like 0 dislike
by Newbie (260 points)

After doing some research, the claim that "Disney bought Esptein's Island to build a theme park" is false. Multiple sources such as USA Today have explicitly debunked this article stating "It is totally made-up" and that the claim itself is satire. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/04/12/epstein-island-sold-to-disney-satire-fact-check/73292777007/

Satire
1 like 0 dislike
by Newbie (200 points)
False
1 like 0 dislike
by Newbie (230 points)
For one, the website has so many ads that tend to block the actual story. This is a red flag. Then, I looked up if the island was even purchased by anyone. It was bought by a financer in 2023. No other files noted that it was purchased by any company. USA Today backs it up. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/04/12/epstein-island-sold-to-disney-satire-fact-check/73292777007/
False
1 like 0 dislike
by Newbie (240 points)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/04/12/epstein-island-sold-to-disney-satire-fact-check/73292777007/

I found this article about Disney buying Jeffery Epstein’s island, and this information is false. It was used as satire. I also looked at other articles and all the headlines say it’s false. 

1 like 0 dislike
by Novice (540 points)

This is not true and misinformation. The quote I found;  "official statements, “Jeffery’s Island is the perfect place to put up a new theme park. It’s also a great way to honor the late, great, Jeffery Epstein, who took his life too soon.”" has no evidence and only evidence that the article is not true when I researched it.  https://www.yahoo.com/tech/viral-video-claiming-disney-bought-192000032.html 

1 like 0 dislike
by Newbie (240 points)

No this is extremely false, and according to USA Today, "This didn't happen. The claim originated on a website clearly labeled as satire, but the Facebook post does not indicate that."(McCreary, 2024) Also this claim can be debunked because, " A financier bought them both in 2023, and there are no credible reports either has been sold again."(McCreary, 2024) Stephen Deckoff, who owns an investment firm, acquired both islands on May 3,2023 according to PR Newswire. So this claim is based on complete falsity because of the fact that another person bought and acquired these islands.

Sites 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sd-investments-announces-acquisition-of-great-st-james-and-little-st-james-islands-in-the-united-states-virgin-islands-301815032.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/04/12/epstein-island-sold-to-disney-satire-fact-check/73292777007/

False
1 like 0 dislike
by Newbie (240 points)

First of all, not a single source is cited. Examples of deliberate vagueness include: "According to a top real estate appraiser, this island isn’t worth nearly $3 billion.", And: "According to official statements," Statements from who? 

Mousetrap News labels itself as a satirical news organization. Snopes fact-checked this article as well. They labeled it as Satire. 

I consider this to be fake news. 

Satire
1 like 0 dislike
by Newbie (240 points)
This was an article published by a known satire, fake news website called "Mouse Trap News". It was published meaning to be a joke, but people didn't take it as a joke and ran with the information and spread it as real news.
1 like 0 dislike
by Novice (540 points)

This claim is false 

This is a link to the claims source, Mouse Trap News, in which they claim they are "the world's best satire and parody site." 

https://mousetrapnews.com/about/

This is another article also confirming that this claim was fake 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/disney-bought-epsteins-island/

1 like 0 dislike
by Newbie (200 points)

My name is Adam, I am a current college student. This is false. After doing minimal research, I found this article by USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/04/12/epstein-island-sold-to-disney-satire-fact-check/73292777007/.

The headline reads, 

No, Disney didn't buy Jeffrey Epstein's island. Claim started as satire | Fact check.

This claim came from a satirical website called Mouse Trap News. 

False

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