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In May 2017, fidget spinners — a stress-relieving toy that consists of a ball bearing with metal prongs that can be spun and flicked, and which supposedly helps with mental focus — turned into the season's trend, with versions of the plastic or metal gadgets selling for thousands of dollars online. Fake news and hoaxes quickly followed on the heels of its soaring popularity. On 16 May 2017, people on social media were deeply amused by a stories about a man in his thirties who was hospitalized after one of the popular toys became lodged in his anus: One version claimed the fidget spinner accident occurred in Boise, Idaho, and the other in Louisville, Kentucky. Otherwise, the language in the articles varied little: No local media reports from Boise or Louisville indicated that any incident involved a fidget spinner lodged in anyone's anus. These highly sharable stories are a perfect example of regional fake news, where standard garden-variety hoaxes are geo-targeted to increase social media traffic and engagement.
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