Was Williamsburg in Kentucky voted methamphetamine capital of the state? No, that's not real: there is no such thing as the official title for being the meth capital of a state and even if there was it wouldn't be voted on through a poll. The whole thing was made up by some joker using a prank website to publish a fake story.
The story appeared on React365 in an article published on July 9, 2018 titled "Williamsburg, Kentucky voted methamphetamine capitol of the state" (archived here) which opened:
In a poll conducted over the last week it has been found that Williamsburg, Kentucky is the most meth riddled community in the state. Studies show that 75 of the population are meth hungry addicts who will do anything for their next fix! Share to raise awareness of the terrible epidemic that has stricken this town!
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Williamsburg, Kentucky voted methamphetamine capitol of the state
In a poll conducted over the last week it has been found that Williamsburg, Kentucky is the most meth riddled community in the state. Studies show that 75 of the population are meth hungry addicts who will do anything for their next fix! Share to raise awareness of the terrible epidemic that has stricken this town!
The site that published the story is a prank website where users can submit their own headline, description and photo to create realistic looking prank news articles.
Users don't even need to upload their own image, there is a built-in search function that will pull an appropriate image from Google image search.
The site is part of a larger network of prank sites all using the same basic layout but sometimes in different languages. It appears to be run by a Belgian company named Mediavibes or Media Vibes which is managed by a man named Nicolas Gouriou according to registration records.
Each site in the network comes with a disclaimer (sometimes translated into a different language) that reads:
This website is an entertainment website, jokes are created by users. These are humourous jokes, fantasy, fictional, that should not be seriously taken or as a source of information.
So don't fall for this prank now that we've warned you about it!
We wrote about react365.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Two Great White Sharks NOT Found Swimming In Laurel Lake Near London, Kentucky
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- Fake News: Mount Pleasant Woman Did NOT Fake Pregnancy and Newborns Death
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