On 26 January 2020 US basketball star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash near Calabasas in California, together with seven others.
He was survived by his wife Vanessa Bryant, their three other daughters, and his parents.
Almost a month after Bryant’s shock death, Africa Check debunked a hoax video widely shared on social media claiming that Vanessa Bryant had died by suicide.
And just a few days later the same website started claiming that the couple’s eldest daughter, Natalia Bryant, had killed herself, leaving a video of her death which had been shared on Facebook.
Did Natalia Bryant die, or is this another clickbait scam like the one we debunked before? We checked.
Clicking on the “video” in the new post redirects to the original hoax video. It is exactly the same ploy as before, trying to trick Facebook users into sharing the fake news item.
The claim is once again attributed to BBC News, but there are no reports of Natalia’s death on the real BBC website. And there are no other reliable news reports of Natalia Bryant’s death, either. – Taryn Willows
He was survived by his wife Vanessa Bryant, their three other daughters, and his parents.
Almost a month after Bryant’s shock death, Africa Check debunked a hoax video widely shared on social media claiming that Vanessa Bryant had died by suicide.
And just a few days later the same website started claiming that the couple’s eldest daughter, Natalia Bryant, had killed herself, leaving a video of her death which had been shared on Facebook.
Did Natalia Bryant die, or is this another clickbait scam like the one we debunked before? We checked.
Redirects to older hoax video
Clicking on the “video” in the new post redirects to the original hoax video. It is exactly the same ploy as before, trying to trick Facebook users into sharing the fake news item.
The claim is once again attributed to BBC News, but there are no reports of Natalia’s death on the real BBC website. And there are no other reliable news reports of Natalia Bryant’s death, either. – Taryn Willows
For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false
A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?
Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.
Publishers guideAfrica Check teams up with Facebook
Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.
The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.
You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.
Further Reading
Governments in Africa have doubled ‘false news’ laws, to little effect. Another way is possible
Since 2016, the 11 countries we studied nearly doubled their laws and regulations on misinformation. There is little to show for it.
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