Misinformation about Clintons, Moïse started as satire

"BREAKING," begins the headline in a screenshot of what looks like a news story. "Haitian President Jovenel Moïse to expose Clinton fraud tomorrow."

The screenshot was shared on Facebook on July 7 and looks like the story was posted hours before Moïse was assassinated that day. But the publication — Genesius Times — does not post authentic news stories. 

A Facebook post sharing the screenshot 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.)

Genesius Times calls itself "the most reliable source of fake news on the planet," so while the story claims that Moïse was "set to expose fraud perpetrated by the Clinton Foundation following the earthquake there in 2010," it’s not authentic. 

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As First Draft reported on July 8, Moïse’s assassination "reawakened a pervasive conspiracy theory about former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton." The Clintons have ties to Haiti both through government and international organizations, and the assassination has "fueled the latest chapter in the sprawling conspiracy theory that suggests that the Clintons have orchestrated the killings of dozens of people," First Draft said.

This so-called "Clinton body count" conspiracy theory is so widespread that Washington State University Vancouver researcher Mike Caulfield says it’s an example of "trope-field fit," according to First Draft. "The phenomenon is a process by which a narrative convention — in this case, the conspiracy theory that the Clintons murder their associates and rivals —  is matched with news events that serve as entries in a ‘field’ — here the death of anybody who knew Bill or Hillary Clinton."

But there’s no evidence Moïse was killed by the Clintons, and claims that the Haitian president was about to expose them before he was assassinated are Pants on Fire!