You may have read the story about the Chinese re-release of the movie Titanic. The nude scene was cut from the 3D version because of fears that Chinese men would reach out and try to grab Kate Winslet's, um, assets. James Cameron even talked about it on TV. But there was one part of the story that was missing -it wasn't true. The original source was a satirical blog post that went viral and along the way lost its "fake" tag before it was picked up by major news outlet worldwide.
Liu Haorui, the original blogger, tells how it happened. Link -via Metafilter
This particular report exploded like a bomb to spread everywhere. At first, it was limited only to the Chinese-language Internet. More recently, it has appeared among foreign media. I just watched a clip of director James Cameron being interviewed on a talk show during which he said: "They were afraid that the Chinese men will reach out to touch the screen." When Cameron emphasized that "This is true," I knew that this is one of the most successful fake stories in recent years.
Although this report is so popular that I cannot even believe that I was the one who made it up, the truth is that facts are facts and lies are lies. And the truth is that this report was the result of a spoof created out of boredom by a person who is about to graduate from university.
Liu Haorui, the original blogger, tells how it happened. Link -via Metafilter