Earlier this year in May, a tweet carrying false information
about Cristiano Ronaldo donating $1.5 million to Palestinians in Gaza for
Ramadan led to the false news making headlines. Our blog also shared the information and for that we apologize to our readers. The tweet was made by
"Onwadan's Charity Foundation". On their Facebook page, they describe
themselves as being a charity organization based in Lagos, Nigeria. Another
tweet about Ronaldo making the said donation made on May 16, 2019 went viral
pretty fast and has been liked over 10,000 times, retweeted over 4,000 times,
has over 300 comments - mostly thanking Ronaldo for his kindness. Former
British MP George Galloway also commented and retweeted.
Fake news about Ronaldo donating money for various
charitable causes has been made up for as long as he's been popular. In 2012,
many social media posts claimed that Ronaldo had auctioned off his European
Golden Boot to support Palestinian children. In 2017, ESPN ran a story about
Cristiano Ronaldo intending to build a pediatric hospital in Chile, but
corrected the story the next day. In 2015, a story about Cristiano Ronaldo
donating $8 million to "Save the Children" organization was reported
by the Washington Post, though they issued an explicit retraction of the story
a few days later.
We all need to be vigilant when reading such stories and as
reporters/bloggers, only use the most credible sources.
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