McDonald's Isn't Charging African Americans $1.50 Extra

Over the weekend, a photo claiming McDonald's was charging African American customers an extra $1.50 as "an insurance measure" against robberies trended on Twitter under the hashtag #SeriouslyMcDonalds. Turns out it was a hoax, and not a new one, either: it was mentioned on the blog McServed last summer.

McDonald's tweeted a response on Saturday — "That pic is a senseless & ignorant hoax McD's values ALL our customers. Diversity runs deep in our culture on both sides of the counter" — but the tag is still getting some play this morning.

Twitter naturally lends itself as a breeding ground for hoaxes, with any halfway believable rumor spreading faster than you can click retweet. As Alexia Tsotsis over at TechCrunch says, "A retweet can function as the online equivalent of gawking at a car crash, even when the story seems too good (or more likely, bad) to be true." Lesson learned? Probably not.

· ‘Seriously McDonalds’ Hoax-Pic Angers Internet, McDonald’s [Gawker]
· If Something On Twitter Seems Too Bad To Be True, It Probably Is [TechCrunch]
· All McDonald's Coverage on Eater [Eater]