SKOWHEGAN — A Facebook page purporting to be that of the Skowhegan Police Department recently posted a false claim that there had been a triple murder in town, an incident that comes amid growing national attention to fake news and the role of social media in spreading such hoaxes.
“Our page has been hacked and copied at this point, we are working to get this fixed,” the department wrote on its Facebook page Monday.
It appears the Police Department’s page wasn’t actually hacked, but a duplicate page gave the appearance of being the official page.
The hoax posting on the bogus Facebook page appeared with a police car, yellow crime scene tape and the words “body found,” linking to a fake news story reporting that a woman killed her three children in Skowhegan and in other locations.
Skowhegan Police Chief Don Bolduc said Officer CJ Viera is working with Facebook officials to remove the page.
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