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In 2016, fake news on the Internet took a new turn as cloned fake news — multiple sites spreading localized variants of the same false story — became more prevalent. The most notable example was a series of sites just convincing enough to dupe casual readers, all of which published articles holding that high-profile celebrities were making drastic lifestyle changes, moving from Hollywood or New York to various small towns across the United States. The latest rumor in this vein to make the rounds involves the Star Wars movie franchise and has prompted multiple local news outlets (in locations as diverse as Las Vegas and Davenport, Iowa) to report on rumors that the next installment will be filming in their area: Numerous news outlets aren't reporting this information, because it (like the rash of celebrity moves to [town] stories) is completely untrue. The reports originate with multiple articles on cloned sites that keep the primary story details intact but vary the locales, swapping out the names of the towns involved, to get readers excited enough to click on and share the stories — thereby driving up the publishing sites' ad revenues: The news site mockups do generally have disclaimers on their About pages. For example: There appear to be dozens of sites like this, all listing the same e-mail address for their contact information. In case there was any doubt left, Star Wars director Rian Johnson shot down the phony news in a statement on Twitter:
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