Wednesday morning, popular southern hamburger chain Whataburger was forced to respond to a claim made by a prank website that announced the chain would be closing all its locations in 2018. The post, by a fake news site, wrote that Whataburger CEO Preston Atkinson announced the closing, the result of the restaurant’s inability to keep up with the competition.
Whataburger calmed worried patrons by tweeting that the story was fake and that the chain is not going anywhere. So don’t worry, your honey butter chicken biscuits are safe.
An article is being circulated stating that Whataburger will be closing all stores. This article is a hoax, and we aren’t going anywhere. pic.twitter.com/Y6dF97urBO
— Whataburger® (@Whataburger) June 28, 2017
Whataburger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Channel 45 News, where the hoax originated, is a popular crowdsourced site to create fake articles to send to your friends and share on social media. You can input headlines you like, add images, and create the next big fake news controversy and viral panic.
So don’t.