Breaking Bad season 6 isn’t happening: A hoax story found its way into Google News
Better Call Saul is the closest you're getting to new Breaking Bad content
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.We’ve had to debunk Breaking Bad season 6 several times now (it isn’t happening guys, Walt is deader than dead), but you could be forgiven for falling for this latest hoax story.
An article entitled ‘Vince Gilligan Announces Breaking Bad Season 6; Begins Shooting December 2015 - NBC News’ found its way into Google’s ‘In the news’ segment on Wednesday, which cited the publication as ‘NBC’.
In fact, the article was a “satirical” one (disingenuous term for hoax clickbait) from fake news website NBC.com.co. I'd link to it, but don't want to give them the clicks.
It’s pretty appalling that Google let a non-reputable source masquerade as a major news organisation, and it’s probably due to the fact that its search algorithm gives preferential treatment to widely-shared stories, which a supposed announcement of a new season of the world’s biggest show certainly was.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened, with the same website last week fooling people into thinking Yelp was suing Comedy Central’s South Park for $10 million.
It wasn’t only Google that fell for the Breaking Bad hoax, NBC employees did too:
Bloomberg recently reported that Google has started handing over control of its search algorithm to an artificial intelligence system, which could also be a factor here.
Recode asked Google for a comment but has yet to hear back.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments