What's that? Can you hear it? It's the sound of people being angry on Facebook again! This time, it's over a story from something called the Rochdale Herald, announcing that the city of London will rename Big Ben as "Massive Mohammed" in 2018.
The story, published on Tuesday, claims the iconic clock tower will be renamed to reflect London's "growing diversity."
It will even ring calls to Muslim prayers, according to the Rochdale Herald story, which said there will be a push to rename other landmarks as well.
βRenaming the London Eye the βLondon Third Eyeβ has been popular with Hindus and Buddhists, and weβre currently trying to persuade London Zoo to make its collection more kosher-friendly for the sake of its Jewish visitors. We did suggest changing Blackfriars to βFriars of Colourβ but many people thought that that was just a bridge too far,β the Rochdale Herald quoted a "project manager" as saying.
If you haven't figured it out yet, this story is a piece of satire from a fake newspaper. In fact, the Rochdale Herald states it is fake news pretty clearly on its "about us" page.
"The Rochdale Herald is a satirical, spoof, parody commentary on current affairs, and stuff that annoys and amuses us. We make it up and itβs not intended, in any way whatsoever, to be considered factual," it states. "If you read a story on The Rochdale Herald, please take a deep breath before going off the deep end as we probably made it up..."