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In July 2021, a viral image supposedly showing a tweet sent by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in which he claimed that a massive blackout had been caused by an explosion at the German Dam in Bolivar State went viral on social media. But the virality of this tweet wasn't based on the newsworthiness of the blackout. Rather, it went viral because Germán Dam was the name of the reporter who penned the article, not the location of the explosion: This is a genuine exchange between Rubio and reporter Germán Dam about the non-existent German Dam in Venezuela. While this image was widely circulated in July 2021, this is not the first time that the internet has had a laugh at this exchange. In fact, these tweets were originally posted back in March 2019. Another journalist with the same first name, German Lopez, reported for Vox at the time: Rubio has since deleted his tweet, but an archived version can be seen here. Dam's response is still live. It should also be noted that Rubio clamed that this erroneous message was posted not because he confused the reporter's name with a location, but because he meant to write according to Germán Dam. After this exchange initially went viral, Rubio posted the following message on Twitter:
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