Fact-checkers quickly snuff out fake story about Cancun beach

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Volunteers in Spain stage a mass death to bring attention to the refugee crisis. The photo has since been abused to scare away visitors to Mexico. Photo: Sara Cantos and José Luís Sanchez Hachero

A spoof news site Mas Viral No Hay, or “There Is None More Viral,” wants an alarmist story they published about Cancun to be shared.

In fact, they’d be thrilled if it went “viral.”

But it’s a spoof, and was debunked quickly on the investigative fact-checking Snopes.

The pranksters are misrepresenting staged photographs, taken in Spain, as images of actual dead people washing ashore in Cancun.

According to the site, more than 50 bodies were found on a beach. “The beautiful coasts of CANCÚN turn ‘FRIGHTENING,’ ” the fake article claims. Its headline urges readers to share the story.

The photos were taken more than a year ago, 7,800 kilometers away — in Cádiz, Spain. The “bodies” are living people representing the 117 migrants who were found dead and washed ashore on a beach in Libya in June 2017.

The demonstration was meant to raise awareness of the refugee crisis across the Mediterranean and into Europe.

The photographs were also abused in July when to spread a false report about the murder of nine children in Acapulco in July 2017.

Snopes notes that Mas Viral No Hay lacks a disclaimer calling itself “satire.”

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