7 Rumors That Have Spread About the Manchester Attack

On Monday (May 22), an explosion took place at the Manchester Arena immediately following an Ariana Grande concert. The attack claimed 22 lives and injured many others, leaving people all over the world feeling devastated by the tragedy.

In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, many people turned to social media for answers. Trending hashtags yielded an array of support from the Manchester community, with people offering lodging, food, and transportation for those who were affected by the attack. As time passed, social media became a place of mourning as well, with photos and names of the victims circulating on Twitter and Instagram.

Unfortunately, among the posts of love and support were plenty of posts containing false information. Because of the magnitude of this incident, a lot of fake facts began to spread quickly as people tweeted and retweeted things that were inherently untrue. It's entirely possible that much of this was done with good intentions; so many people were looking for ways to help, and that's obviously a good thing. But at the same time, it's so important to make sure what you're sharing online is, in fact, real. Below are some of the widely-shared pieces of information that have been proven false over the past several days.

1. Fake pictures of "missing" children and teens have been retweeted thousands of times on social media.

It was undoubtedly heartbreaking to go online on Monday and see people sharing photos of friends that they could not locate after Ariana's concert. However, not all of those photos were legitimate; it turns out that some people were sharing photos of strangers, models, or YouTube stars with the possible goal of getting attention and retweets. One person even tweeted a photo of a little boy with Down syndrome, only to be determined that the picture was from a 2014 clothing ad.

2. Rumors began spreading about local hotels taking in large groups of unaccompanied children.

Almost immediately after the attack, people began sharing information about the Holiday Inn and Premier Inn hotels that were close to the arena. Parents were encouraged to contact those hotels if they could not locate their children, as the posts alleged that the establishments had taken in kids and teens who were alone after the attack. This turned out to be false.

A spokesperson for InterContinental Hotels (the parent company of Holiday Inn) told BuzzFeed, "There has been reports of a number of unaccompanied children being bought to a Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express in the area, however these are incorrect. Our hotels were working with police throughout the night, but we did not have a group of unaccompanied children at our hotel." The Greater Manchester Police also tweeted an update about this rumor, urging parents and loved ones to call the National Casualty Bureau and not the hotels.

3. There were false reports of a gunman in association with the Manchester bombings.

Soon after the initial explosion, people began tweeting that there was a gunman at Oldham Royal Hospital. One woman reportedly took to Facebook to claim that she was inside the hospital, and a man was outside with a gun. It later turned out that the hospital was on lockdown because of the Manchester bombing, not because of an additional gunman.

4. A 2015 image of Ariana Grande was widely shared after the attack.

A photo of Ariana began circulating on Monday night, depicting her with blood and dirt streaked on her face. This photo was not taken in conjunction with the bombing; in fact, it is from a set of photos while filming Scream Queens in 2015.

5. Some people are falsely presuming that a Trump-esque travel ban would have stopped the suspect from carrying out the attack.

The New York Times notes that suspect Salman Abedi recently traveled to Libya, which is prompting some people on social media to say that the Manchester attack could have been avoidable if the UK adopted a travel ban akin to Trump's (as his executive order included Libya as one of the banned countries). However, as the Times points out, Abedi is a British citizen and carries a British passport. Trump's executive order did not apply to people with U.S. passports, therefore, by this logic, Abedi's trip to Libya would not have prohibited him from getting back into the UK.

6. Fake pictures of the suspect's sister have been shared online.

As noted by The Independent, photos of Instagram stars and beauty bloggers have been falsely used to represent the sister of the suspect. Janice Joostema and Maya Ahmad are two of the social media celebrities whose photos have been used in Italian newspapers in conjunction with the attack. According to The Independent, the suspect's sister herself reportedly uses photos of beauty bloggers as Facebook profile pictures, which has led publications to make this error.

7. Some people are setting up fake fundraising websites.

Yesterday, the Greater Manchester Police warned community members to be cautious of fraudulent fundraising websites. In a tweet, they shared a link to a page that people online can trust, in partnership with the British Red Cross. At the time of writing, the fundraising page promoted by the GMP has raised £1,568,706, which is the equivalent of $2,032,737.

Related: How Social Media Helps and Hurts Following a Tragedy