Don’t believe this blog post about Quaden Bayles committing suicide

After his mother posted a video of him sobbing and saying he wanted to die because he was being bullied for dwarfism, 9-year-old Quaden Bayles drew worldwide support, including from actor Hugh Jackman, Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter and Eric Trump, President Donald Trump’s son. 

Now, a blog post is trafficking in some of the worst kind of clickbait: a hoax that the Australian child has committed suicide.

The post, which says it was published "15 mins ago" regardless of when you view it on the website, features the BBC News logo and video with this description: "The BULLIED 9-yrs old Kid ‘Quaden Bayles’, KILLED himself, Left a ‘Suicide VIDEO’ in his Phone and Sent to Everyone at his School after BULLYING Worsens. - BBC News." 

Clicking on the video leads to this page, with another video that says "R.I.P. Quaden Bayles 2011-2020." The short clip shows an American news anchor saying that police found the body of a 9-year-old before abruptly stopping with this warning: "This video may show graphic content. Share to continue watching." 

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Threads posts

stated on October 23, 2024 in a Threads post

Kamala Harris’ statements about Trump invoking Adolf Hitler were based on a “debunked hoax from The Atlantic.”

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

It’s similar to another hoax suicide report. In February, we debunked claims that Kobe Bryant’s widow killed herself after his death. Like this post about Bayles, that one also featured the BBC News logo and an "R.I.P" video that cut off with a warning that told viewers to share it to continue watching. 

BBC didn’t report on Bryant’s supposed suicide, and it didn’t report on Bayles allegedly killing himself. We found no other media coverage of such an event, either. 

We rate this blog post Pants on Fire.