On Monday, a viral tweet claimed that NASA said brooms would stand up on that day only because of the earth’s gravitational pull. There’s just one problem: NASA never said that.
Brooms can stand up on any day of the week — Sunday through Saturday — but that didn’t stop the #BroomChallenge from going viral on social media. The original tweet has been viewed nearly 7 million times.
Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton was among many Twitter users who were perplexed by the hoax.
Denver cornerback Davontae Harris chimed in, too — he simply wanted to see the challenge go away.
“This is another social media hoax that exemplifies how quickly pseudoscience and false claims can go viral,” NASA public affairs officer Karen Northon told USA TODAY’s Adrianna Rodriguez in an interview.
It was a harmless hoax, but a hoax nonetheless.
Sutton can take solace in knowing that he wasn’t the only one fooled.
