Debunking the viral hoaxes after the Manchester bombing

Like so many others, I’m struggling to concentrate on what I should be doing this morning, as the horrible news filters in from Manchester. Things like this make it particularly distressing:

The BBC has been told that the youngest victim of the Manchester Arena attack was of primary school age. The rest were older children/adults

— Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) May 23, 2017

The death of children is always harder to bear than those of older adults, because you feel that they’re having so much more stolen from them; so many potential experiences that will never now occur. The younger the child, the more acute that is.

And that makes the waves of fake news circulating around those vent even more distressing — and enraging — than normal.

Buzzfeed’s Jim Waterson and team are doing a sterling job of tracking the fake news about the Manchester bombing.

Here’s a handy tweet to retweet if you want to share the debunking:

There's a lot of fake news and disinformation online about the Manchester explosion. We're keeping track of it here. https://t.co/LXclbGPd7H

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) May 23, 2017