A look at what didn’t happen last week

Associated Press

None of these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media.

The Associated Press checked these out; here are the real facts:

Not real: “Gordon Ramsay has his entire staff take a knee – refuses to serve Miami Dolphins players”

The facts: The restaurant named in this story created by hoax site The Last Line of Defense doesn’t even exist. The story claims four Dolphins players were denied service at Ramsay’s gastropub in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood with Ramsay calling them disrespectful. Ramsay’s spokeswoman tells The Associated Press the chef has no gastropub in SoHo and the story is “nonsense.”

Not real: “This man posed proudly with the bear he shot while it was hibernating.”

The facts: The article centers on a new federal law that removes protections for hibernating bears. However, a photo showing a smiling man holding up the paw of a dead bear in a snowy location is completely unrelated to the law. The picture was taken at Alaska’s Becharof National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge’s Facebook page shared the picture last year, saying the bear was legally taken during the refuge’s spring hunt in 2014. At the time, it would have been illegal to kill a hibernating bear.

Not real: “Pizza Hut is giving 3 free large pizza coupon on their 58th Anniversary”

The facts: This offer is too good to be true, despite several Facebook posts that have been circulating in recent weeks.

The posts take users to a website that prompts them to take a survey and share the post on Facebook in order to receive a coupon. Pizza Hut responded to a similar “anniversary” scam on its own Facebook page last year. The company said the coupon offer was fraudulent and that any legitimate deal would be found on its website or social media pages.