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| - On March 19, 2021, the World News Daily Report published an article positing that Chinese customs officers had seized more than 7,200 "penises of African origin" on a cargo ship from Nigeria:
Chinese Authorities Seize Over 7,200 Human Penises on a Cargo Ship From Nigeria
Chinese customs officers have made the world’s biggest seizure of human organs in history this morning, a total of 7221 penises of African origin hidden in a refrigerated freight container.
Acting on information from an anonymous informer, Chinese officers found the organs in 36 boxes labelled as plantains (cooking bananas) inside a refrigerated container on a ship harboured in the Shanghai Port.
This item was not a factual recounting of real-life events. The article originated with a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature, as follows:
WNDR assumes however all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.
The same fabricated text was subsequently published verbatim, without a satire disclaimer, on several websites (for example, The Street Journal) that gave the misleading impression they were providing actual news.
For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.
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