Fake news or April fools?

Blearily checking your newsfeeds this past weekend you would have seen lots of gloom and doom after the happenings at the end of last week and a number of other headlines that were too close to 1 April to not be taken with a pinch of salt.

Luckily there were other “that’s too good to be true” posts to keep things sunny and add a ‘LOL’ or two, with brand pranks popping up everywhere. How about baking your own batch of Kit-Kat?

Or McDonald's ‘Micro Mac’, for when you're just a teeny bit hungry:

Then there was the one about Bafana Bafana appointing Wenger as coach, and many thought Prince Harry had secretly married actress girlfriend Meghan Markle.

Amusing as they may be in theory, these pranks can easily backfire – like TimesLives’ report of TravelStart emailing 400‚000 South Africans a mock booking confirmation of return flights to Rome and payment confirmation of R6‚300, which made many think they were victims of credit card fraud.

Little wonder that News24 reports Nordic newspapers were taking a break from publishing Fools' Day jokes at all this year over fears that it might spread "fake news".

When in doubt about anything published on 1 April, simply keep CliffCentral’s advice top of mind and wait for the noon deadline for exposing those untruths to pass:

Don't be an #AprilFool... any day. pic.twitter.com/J2YRPktBPe

— CliffCentral.com (@CliffCentralCom) April 1, 2017

Click here for last year’s April Fools’ Day roundup, here for Andy Walker of Memeburn's top pranks of the year and let us know if you spotted any other April Fools’ posts!