SUMMARY
This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
Claim: The group of teenage boys from Malabon City who who took a video of themselves smoking marijuana (cannabis) and cursing President Rodrigo Duterte were tortured then killed.
The website ang.balitangswak.info published the claim and garnered minimal social media engagement. It contained a supposed video from ABS-CBN News with a graphic thumbnail or featured image.
Rating: FALSE
The facts: The group of teenagers are alive and now under the custody of Malabon police.
According to them, the video was taped in 2016 but was posted online this August after one of their phones was supposedly “hacked.” They surrendered immediately to authorities on August 28 and 29.
However, the embedded video in the blog post is a September 30, 2016 TV Patrol report of 3 male minors who were kidnapped, tortured, then killed in Subic, Zambales.
This type of blog post often carries death hoaxes and changes content after a while. The video also will play for a few seconds before an age restriction message will pop up. If clicked, it will open a Facebook share window with an automatic caption of “#MarijuanaBoys.”
Rappler has observed in recent weeks that “viral personalities” are targets of this blog such as “5-minute girl” or Christine Estepa who became famous for her altercation with traffic personnel regarding a parking violation. – Miguel Imperial/Rappler.com
Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.
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