The ship sank. Or did it? Titanic misinformation swirls
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The Titanic inspired a tear-jerking blockbuster and expeditions to its watery gravesite — including a fatal one this week — but viral TikTok videos peddle a stunning conspiracy theory: the ship never sank.
More than a century after it went down in the North Atlantic Ocean, wild myths and urban legends about the luxury liner have continued to swirl, including that it was doomed by the curse of a mummified Egyptian priestess.
Even more striking are a wave of TikTok videos asserting that the Titanic did not sink at all. Many of them have racked up millions of views — never mind that the claim fails to hold water.
“The Titanic never truly went under,” said a video by a TikTok user called “The Deep Dive,” which garnered more than four million views.
“Everyone is familiar with the tale of the unstoppable ship that perished after colliding with an iceberg, but perhaps that isn’t the case.”
The video opens with a dramatic portrait of the Titanic, its stern crashing against stormy waves, as an imperious male voice goes on to claim that it was swapped with its sister ship –- the Olympic.
He alluded to an oft-repeated conspiracy theory that the company that built the Titanic purposely sank the Olympic, another one of its ships, as part of an elaborate insurance fraud.
A similar TikTok video claiming “the Titanic never sank” garnered 11 million views. The video was removed earlier this year in what appeared to be a rare intervention after it was widely reported by the US media.
– Historical falsehoods –
TikTok’s algorithm and engagement-based recommendation system, which creates personal feeds for users based on their preferences, makes it a powerful platform to propagate conspiracy theories, experts say.
Content retrieved from: https://news.yahoo.com/ship-sank-did-titanic-misinformation-030140719.html.
