claim: The soft drink Mountain Dew is being discontinued by Pepsico.
origin: In August 2015, a news-like link reporting that the popular soft drink Mountain Dew (owned by Pepsico) was going to be â€œcancelledâ€ started circulating around social media. Although the link appeared to point to a real news story, it was generated by the trolling web site FeedNewz: The content on FeedNews.com is user created. Anyone with an Internet connection can use the web site, as well as prank.link and fakeshare.com, to create fake news headlines: When social media users click on links created by one of the above-mentioned web sites, they get redirected to a â€œYou Got Ownedâ€ page. FeedNews.com then encourages anyone who was fooled by the prank to share it again with their own social media circles, ensuring that the pranks go viral: FeedNewz.com also helped spread fake stories about MMA champion Ronda Rousey failing a drug test, the Taco Bell fast food chain closing all their outlets, and Channing Tatum coming out as gay.