Fake news abounds as people react to the coronavirus, including so-called preventative measures that wouldn’t cure a common cold, conspiracy theories, and false updates about how countries are dealing with things.

The news that China was going to kill 20 000 people stands out as a particularly nasty bit of social media rubbish.

In South Africa, spreading fake news about the coronavirus could land you with a fine, jail time, or both. 

But not all fake news is necessarily harmful.

Per National Geographic, news has been doing the rounds suggesting that while cities and towns are locked down, animals are returning to previously peopled areas to enjoy themselves without humans scaring them off.

Swans had returned to deserted Venetian canals. Dolphins too. And a group of elephants had sauntered through a village in Yunnan, China, gotten drunk off corn wine, and passed out in a tea garden.

These stories were a nice break from the constant reporting on COVID-19, which can get a bit overwhelming at times. Unfortunately, none of it is true.

Venice hasn’t seen clear canal water in a very long time. Dolphins showing up too. Nature just hit the reset button on us pic.twitter.com/RzqOq8ftCj

— Gianluca De Santis (@b8taFPS) March 17, 2020

The swans regularly visit the canals of Burano in Venice, and did so before the pandemic, and the dolphins that reportedly appeared in Venice were actually filmed at a port in Sardinia.

No one has figured out where the drunken elephant photos came from, but a Chinese news report debunked the viral posts: While elephants did recently come through a village in Yunnan Province, China, their presence isn’t out of the norm, they aren’t the elephants in the viral photos, and they didn’t get drunk and pass out in a tea field.

Wherever the elephants are, or whenever the photo was taken, it’s still cute:

The viral tweet about the swans was shared by Ahuja, who lives in New Delhi, India. She says that she saw it on social media and shared it because she wanted to share a little “joy in these gloomy times”.

She doesn’t plan on deleting it because she says it’s still relevant because the water is clearer in Venice now that boat activity has decreased.

She’s tweeted about the “unprecedented” number of likes and retweets she’s received on the tweet. “It’s a personal record for me, and I would not like to delete it,” she says.

Therein lies the problem. While we’d like to believe that some kind of oddly happy internet troll is out there creating fake animal posts to bring joy (as opposed to the other kind of internet troll), the reality is that posts like this garner ‘likes’ and retweets.

Much like the people on social media using the hashtag #coronavirus to gain more followers on Instagram, this might just be another way to boost social media presence.

Posts like this prey on our need for a silver lining when things are looking bleak.

Instead of sharing fakes news, share as much verified positive news as you can.

You can start with some awesome feel-good videos of people playing tic-tac-toe with their pets. 

[source:nationalgeographic]