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On July 4, 2016, multiple Twitter and Facebook users published links claiming actor and former wrestler Dwayne The Rock Johnson was arrested for importing human growth hormone (HGH) into Australia: Although the false rumor spiked in early July 2016, it was not new as that time, as tweets reporting the same rumor had been appearing intermittently for more than a year. Moreover, social media mentions of Johnson's purported arrest were driven by an array of websites that concentrate on viral shares, none of which included much more than a photograph of the star in handcuffs from People magazine: The People magazine article to which the site linked did not report any such arrest. Published in July 2015, the report featured a photograph of Johnson that was taken while he was filming the movie, Central Intelligence: The rumor about Johnson being arrested for HGH appeared to originate with a since-shuttered satire website known as tmosocial.com. This fact was referenced in an August 2015 correction from the law enforcement watchdog site Cop Block: That note was appended to the original article, which had inaccurately cited the celebrity gossip site TMZ as their source for the initial erroneous arrest claim. Part of the satirical article read as follows: The long-circulating fabrication about Johnson's arrest wasn't the first popular effort from websites impersonating TMZ. A bevy of other websites used that outlet's name and visual elements to spread fake news stories about a satanic dungeon in the basement of a Chuck E. Cheese, an implant that alerts people when their partner cheats, a college girl who became comatose after drinking excess quantities of a bodily fluid, Ku Klux Klan members committing suicide over the news of a $20 bill bearing Harriet Tubman's image, and a study indicating 80% of men in Atlanta are gay.
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