The screenshot of an alleged news article with the headline ’14 -year-old student builds an atomic bomb as a scientific project ‘and a photo of a girl holding a blue ribbon are circulating on social media. Some users believe that this is an authentic story. However, this is false: the article was published by a satirical website and contains a digitally edited photo.
Some iterations contain the screenshot in a meme that contains a different image with the text: ‘that boy who was arrested for making a watch that he thought was a bomb.’ Examples can be seen here.
Some users acknowledge that the content was posted by a satirical website, but others do not. Comments include: ‘Can you even bring it to school ?? Are they not worried that the bomb is going to blow up? And “skin color privileges .. you can make bombs as long as you are white + you will win an award for it.”
The earliest reference to the original story that Reuters could find was on World News Daily Report here 2017 (according to the page’s html code information).
The site contains an disclaimer (here) which states that the site “accepts all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of its content.” It also said that ‘all the characters that appear in the articles on this site – even those based on real people – are completely fictional and that any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or dead, is a miracle. ‘
The story has since been repeated by another satirical website, which attributed the piece to World News Daily Report (here).
The cover photo used in the satirical article was created digitally by combining the photo of what appears to be an eavesdropping device (a mechanical device that removes dissolved gases from the boiler feed water, (here) similar to the one visible here ) and the school student at a science show in 2014, visible here.
According to the Washington State University article, the girl in the photo is awarded first place in the food science category at the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair for reducing gluten strength in bread.
The meme circulating on social media probably refers to Ahmed Mohamed, who was arrested in 2015 after he brought a homemade watch to his school that misled staff for a bomb (here). The incident caused outrage on social media with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. Many said he was arrested for his religion (here).
VERDICT
Satire. An article about a 14-year-old student who built an atomic bomb as a science project was intended as satire.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.