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People are staging ‘fake animal rescues’ for social media views and donations — 1022 links showing fake rescue content were collected over six weeks from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X
More than a fifth of fake rescue creators asked viewers for donations under the guise of helping animals, usually by Paypal links.
Fake rescue content depicts animals in perilous situations – abandoned, trapped, or attacked – only for the so-called rescuer to stage a dramatic intervention for views and donations. “It’s easy to be misled into thinking a scene of an animal needing help is genuine, and that is why it’s essential that social media platforms do much, much more to identify and remove this type of content.” A SMACC spokesperson stated: “In the past, Fake Rescue content was easier to identify, because it was generally poorly made, and contained little narrative so appeared disingenuous.
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