Did a man named Barry Smith, aged 31, died after being electrocuted during the testing of a sex doll he was working on? No, that's not true, the story was made up by a site that describes itself as a "satire and humor" website. It is not real news.
The story originated from an article published by 8Shit on August 28, 2018 titled "Man Dies From Electrocution While Testing New Sex Doll" (archived here) which opened:
31-year old Barry Smith died yesterday while testing a new sex doll he was attempting to create. He was not satisfied with the current sex dolls in the market, so he decided he was going to create a brand new sex doll which would beat the rest. "Innovation is key", he said once.
His goal was to create new sex doll with fake orgasms, fake moans, which can move on top of your like a real woman. He also wanted it to be able to perform fellatio.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail and would not have been able to see at a glance it was not a real news website:
Man Dies From Electrocution While Testing New Sex Doll
A sacrifice made in the name of science. 31-year old Barry Smith died yesterday while testing a new sex doll he was attempting to create. He was not satisfied with the current sex dolls in the market, so he decided he was going to create a brand new sex doll which would beat the rest. [...]
Furthermore, 8shit.net carries a disclaimer on its about page that reads:
8Shit is a satire and humor website.
It contains cutting edge satire on a diverse range of topics.
The website publishes fake news, shocking rumors and reports with incisive sarcasm, and humor.
We also post crazy real news which often sounds too good to be true.
And an additional disclaimer in the footer of every page:
8Shit is a satire news and humor website. All its content is fiction (except those posts under the "serious" category) and shouldn't be taken as real. All references, names and marks or institutions in this website are used as contextual elements, like in any novel or science-fiction story.
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