Fake News: Sam Hyde is NOT The Shooter in Utrecht

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Sam Hyde is NOT The Shooter in Utrecht

Did a man named Sam Hyde open fire at a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht today? No, that's not true: a shooting did happen there but internet trolls immediately started blaming the comedian for it like they do with every shooting or terrorism incident.

The first tweet (archived here) we spotted was published by an account named "Caïn Marchegris":

A shooting did happen in Utrecht this morning (local time) and CNN is publishing updates about it here:

Utrecht tram shooting: Multiple people hurt in Dutch incident

Police in the Netherlands say multiple people have been injured after a shooting incident inside a tram in the Dutch town of Utrecht.

Blaming right-wing comedian Sam Hyde of being the suspect after a mass shooting is a strange in-joke that has been going on for years.

Whenever there's a mass shooting, trolls blame comedian Sam Hyde

Sam Hyde is not the perpetrator of a mass shooting. But whenever a shooter strikes and the news reports casualties, trolls race to name Hyde as the culprit. In the worst cases, authorities have been tricked into giving Hyde's name to the press.

Here is more information about Sam Hyde and the infamous "Sam Hyde Is The Shooter" meme originally propagated by 4chan trolls:

Sam Hyde

Sam Hyde is an Internet comedian who co-founded the sketch comedy group Million Dollar Extreme and rose to viral video fame after staging a satirical TEDx talk about wonders of the future at Drexel University in October 2013.


  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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