No, this is not a real report about a scuba diver injured after inserting his penis into a giant clam

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 19, 2019 at 11:00
3 min read
By AFP Australia

A screenshot of a news report that claims a scuba diver was hospitalised in Hawaii after he “inserted his penis into a giant clam” has been shared hundreds of times in online posts which present the article as genuine. The posts are misleading; the story originated on a satirical website. The photo of a man with a swollen face in the screenshot has circulated online since at least 2015 in news reports about a snake bite incident in Florida.

The screenshot appears in this Reddit post dated June 12, 2019, which has been viewed by users on the site more than 6,000 times.

“Hawaii: Scuba diver hospitalized after his penis gets stuck in giant clam,” says the headline on the purported article, which includes two pictures – one of a man with a swollen face in hospital, and another of a clam.

Below is a screenshot of the Reddit post:

Screenshot of misleading post on Reddit

The same or very similar screenshots have racked up thousands of shares on various social networking sites such as here on Twitter and here on Facebook; it has also been shared in other languages such as here in German.

The photo of the man, however, does not show a scuba diver who sustained penis injuries in Hawaii.

Reverse image searches on Google lead to reports from Florida-based newspapers Miami New Times here and Orlando Weekly here.

The reports, both dated April 24, 2015, say the picture shows Austin Hatfield of Wimauma, Florida, who was bitten in the face by a snake.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the image in the misleading posts (L), the Miami New Times report (top R) and the Orlando Weekly report (bottom R):

Another reverse image search found the screenshot in the misleading post was not taken from a genuine news report, but from this article published by satirical website World News Daily Report on June 18, 2019.

At the bottom of the page, the website states: “World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content.

“All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.”

Below is a screenshot of the report on the satirical site, whose slogan is “Where facts don’t matter”:

The image of a clam in the misleading post can be traced back to a much higher definition version on the website of online marketplace Redbubble here.

The photo, titled “CLAM MOUTH - GIANT CLAM” was uploaded by a user called springs. Springs’ Redbubble profile states he is an amateur underwater video and still photographer based in Sydney, Australia.

Below is a comparison of the photo in the misleading post (L) and that from the photographer (R):

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