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HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE lined the footpaths on O’Connell Street in Dublin last night in anticipation of a Halloween parade that had been promoted online, but the parade never materialised.
The fake event, posted to a Halloween themed website and circulated to thousands online, was supposed to start on the north side of the city and make its way down to Temple Bar. However, no such parade was planned.
Eventually, gardaí requested that people leave the area safely.
The initial impression of the fake event was that it was an elaborate prank. However, it actually appears to have been promoted by people based in Pakistan.
The website said that the parade would follow a “well-planned route” and begin at Parnell Square at 7pm, before moving south down O’Connell Street.
It encouraged people to arrive early to secure a good viewing spot.
Looks like a random AI slop site based in Illinois, aided by social media, has coaxed hundreds of people on to the main street of Dublin for a Halloween parade that was never happening. https://t.co/zbu1s6iQJG
— Stephen McDermott (@Ste_McDermott) October 31, 2024
The event was promoted on a website called My Spirit Halloween, which has a long list of other events, a number of which are supposedly in Ireland.
While the site claims to be based in Illinois in the United States, its Facebook says its administrators are in Pakistan.
The promotion for the event was initially posted on the website on 30 October, the day before Halloween.
Dublin has held Halloween parades in the past but there was none scheduled for this year.
Some people promoted the fake event on TikTok and used footage of parades from previous years to do so. This may have been done without the TikTok users knowing the event was not real.
One TikTok video was viewed tens of thousands of times.
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This was hilarious
@J B: hahaha boo poxy hoo
@J B: blame the parents
So something on the internet wasn’t true?! By golly.
It’d be easy to weaponise this, start a riot, let off a bomb or something. If you think about it, it’s scary how easy it was to manipulate thousands of people. Thought it was hilarious myself until now, knowing it wasn’t just some donkey having a laugh.
@Fionn Bohane: I’m honestly not having a go at you, but what you just posted about “thousands of people” from an article saying “hundreds of people” is how this false information gathers legs.
It’s so easy for any of us to unwittingly add fuel to these cons.
@Aidan Boland: Ya I noticed that after I posted in fairness. I’ve see thousands reported else where, including a comment on here last night from someone who said they were there. So unless someone was on the ground counting we won’t really know will we?
@Fionn Bohane: even with “only” hundreds of people, if a bomb had been set off it would have been carnage, what with no adequate garda presence. One just hopes it wasn’t a trial run for more sinister things.
@Jerry LeFrog: now there’s a scary thought
@Aidan Boland: You can see that it’s definitely thousands rather than hundreds by simply looking at the pictures and footage. You’d fit 100 people in the porch of the GPO ffs.
@Fionn Bohane: yes the government did the same with COVID.
More like April 1st prank.
@Wood Jackson: you got it in one my friend.
There was another false rumour spread that there would be a great big bake off competition,those attending would be given free slices of cake! Apparently there was hundreds and thousands there
If that’s not a dry-run for a terrorist attack I’ll be very surprised. How easy was it for them to gather hundreds of people in one place with no security or Garda presence? I’d be delving into that one if I were in a position of power. Take note.
Sheeple with the inability to read.
@Nemethon: Oh they can read but they believe what they read on social media!
Why is the article headlined with ‘ Pakistan ‘???
@Frank Mc Carthy: read it and you will discover. It’s called learning
@Kevin Kerr: you GO stalker!!!!
@Kevvy kerrr: You should go, Stephen. Who do you think you’re fooling?
@Frank Mc Carthy: were you one that was at the fake parade last night or just have the inability to read detail.
I’ve heard they have planned another one for 17th of march….be careful out there… there are some terrible scams going around!
At first, I thought it funny as this crowd might’ve been the same folk that tried “free money” from the boi atms last yr. (& I’m genuinely sorry if you did bring along your kids last night).
I’d rather these folk were at the whim of a human generated prank. Not the ominous AI spawned reason.
Change “his” birth certificate
Apparently, someone saw the usual crowd of city centre zombies, witches, Hamas terrorist costumes and dodgy looking east Europeans Africans and Afgans so they mistakenly thought that it was a special event for Halloween.
Don’t worry if you missed it – it can be seen any night.
It was an AI generated event then which is incredible really, “a slop site”. For anyone curious look up the dead internet theory. Unfortunately the internet is bøllixed.
Quite scary how this happened???
Hey, but it was announced on social media, it must be true!
Did Dublin city centre have a Halloween Parade? Seems like the public were keen to come into the city for a parade and spend some time and money in the city. Has the Nighttime Tzar already given up?
@Mickey Quinlan: we used to not sure if there was this year
@Wood Jackson: also threatened to rxpe a prison officer
Gullible Dublin Sheep !
@Lulu: As if boggers wouldn’t have been taken in if this was advertised as happening in some cow shit smelling culchie town. LOL
Apparently the internet says that vaccines are safe too…
@Ciaran O Donoghue: they are
@Ciaran O Donoghue: So do the doctors and medical experts!
@Wood Jackson: one nutjob person does NOT a whole trans community represent.
Because they have zero intelligence. The future is bleak with this lot….
It was on TikTok so it must’ve been true.
Halloween horror as Kerry village terrorised by rampaging youths.
Locals under siege; terrified children wet themselves; violent youths in balaclavas as gardaí make arrests.
You can con some of the people ,some of the time,more of the people most od the time,but not all of the people all of the time.!!!!!
@Elizabeth Doyle: de Valera conned all of the people for most of his life
So basically like a regular Dublin Bus experience.
Are people for real
Is it because they aren’t that bright
The Pooka of mischief strikes at Halloween. Hahahahahaha!
It’ll be up there with the ‘Spaghetti Trees’ ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘Whale Pearl Regurgitation’ pranks in media history!
Things like this definitely don’t affect elections. Definitely not.
Lemmings
Sheep, proven more and more each day.
NPCs doing what NPCs do!
NPC side quest!
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