How President Obama won a 2nd Nobel Peace Prize on social media

This past weekend, many people who follow Facebook news threads were fooled regarding a very believable story about President Barack Obama. The news feed had origins from websites with names such as National Report.net,, Abcnews.com.co, USAtoday.com.co and even MSNBC.com.co. The problem is all of these websites are fake news sites designed with story titles to fool the reader.

The story title this time was “Obama to receive second Nobel Peace Prize” and despite the wishes and fears of many, it is false. There has been no announcement from the Nobel Prize committee located in Oslo, Norway, about President Obama or any of the possible nominees for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. This is in keeping with the organization’s secrecy rule, and according to its official website, “The Committee does not itself announce the names of nominees, neither to the media nor to the candidates themselves.”

This year there are 273 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize; 68 organizations and 205 individuals. The official announcement date for the winner will be Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, at 11 a.m.

There are no laws that punish fake news websites that spread these rumors due in part to disclaimers that appear labeling their stories as satire. But for those looking for fast, up-to-date news, it is easy to be fooled by these websites. In some cases, clicking on the website link can load your computer or smartphone with cookies or a virus that can steal information or flood the user with unwanted pop-up ads. So as a rule, be wary of stories that seem too good to be true and check your sources before you spread a fake story on social media.

Update: Dailynewsbin is a legitimate news site. A response from the  Bill Palmer, Editor in Chief reads “I wrote an opinion piece in which I stated that I believed Obama deserved a second nobel peace prize based on his Iran deal, and that he should be awarded it. Some fake sites (national report etc) then seized the opportunity to write fake stories about how Obama had actually won a second nobel prize. I’m actually as disgusted as you are that these fake sites took what they knew to be a legitimate opinion piece of mine, and purposely turned it into fake news at the expense of my reputation.”