Parody article stating King Abdullah buying Facebook to quell Middle Eastern unrest fools media

While it might make sense in terms of trying to stem the Middle Eastern unrest, it really makes no sense in real-world terms. In addition, the last sentence in the article should have clued folks in that this was just a parody: (Sunday Humor article at Dawnwires.com are meant to humor our readers. They may or may not be the truth).

The parody that claimed dozens of newspapers and blogs in the Middle East was posted at DawnWires on Sunday, Feb. 27. The article suggested that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was planning to buy Facebook, for $150 billion, to quell the unrest in the Middle East.

The initial paragraph of the spoof said:

Inside sources within the kingdom suggest that he is very upset with Mark Zukerberg for allowing the revolt to get out of control. In a personal meeting between Mark Zuckerberg and King Abdullah on Jan 25, 2011, Zuckerberg had promised that he would not allow any revolt pages to be formed on Facebook even while he allowed Egypt and Libya revolt pages to be formed. But little did King Abdullah know Zuckerberg. Had he seen the movie “Social Network”, he would have been better advised than to trust Zuckerberg.

Even without knowing it's a parody, that paragraph has to lead to a chuckle, and make one wonder about the seriousness of the "article." Commenters, as well as Middle East media, took the article seriously. One said:

The freedom of many people is threatened. If Zuckerberg is a human being, he has to refuse the offer no matter how big it is.

In an example of Middle Eastern media being tricked by the joke, the Tehran Times printed the article, pretty close to word for word, without attributing DawnTimes, either. It also hasn't printed a retraction or pulled down the article.

Interestingly, besides the note at the end, DawnWires also stated the article was posted to "Lol News," another clue many missed.

Via: DawnWires