The UN move to Toronto is an April Fools’ hoax

Justin Trudeau unveiled a $6.2 billion project to relocate the United Nations’ New York headquarters to Toronto, according to an article published on April 1, 2019 by Canadian online media the Daily Hive. As the date suggests, the article is an April Fools’ joke, which is made clear at the bottom of the very long article describing every imagined detail of the project, which even featured an approval poll.

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Screenshot of an online article taken on April 2, 2019

Most readers recognized the article was published for April Fools’ Day. However, several political Facebook pages and groups shared the post without specifying the humoristic intentions of the article.

This screenshot of data from the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle shows the social media pages and groups which shared the article.

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Screenshot taken on April 2, 2019 of CrowdTangle data

Comments found on these posts suggest certain users took the information seriously.

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Screenshot taken on April 2, 2019 of a misleading Facebook post

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Screenshot taken on April 2, 2019 of comments on a Facebook post

Such comments reflect a resentment towards the UN that was also seen in the lead-up to the signing of the Global Compact for Migration. The non-legally binding agreement aiming to regulate migration flows worldwide, lead to unfounded concerns that the text would strip Canada of its sovereignty over its borders. You can read AFP Fact Check’s articles on the matter here.

Looking at Twitter, Justin Trudeau made no official announcement regarding the UN or any planned headquarters move on April 1. Neither did Toronto mayor John Tory or UN general-secretary Antonio Guterres.

Due to the increased risk of information being shared out of its humoristic context, several newspapers decided to discontinue their traditions of an April Fools’ article. This year, Québec’s daily Le Devoir followed the example of Scandinavian newspapers who made the decision in 2017.