claim: Ariana Grande contacted the families of those who died in the Manchester Arena attack, and will pay for their funerals.
origin: On 24 May 2017, the @ArianaDailyWW Twitter account (also known as Ariana Updates!) posted theÂ claimÂ that the singer had contacted theÂ families of those who died in a bomb attackÂ at her 22 May concert in Manchester, England, and offered to pay for the victimsâ€™ funerals.Â As of 23 May 2017, authorities had confirmed 22 fatalities in the suicide bomb attack at the Manchester Arena. < News on Ariana: Ariana has reached out to the families whoâ€™s [sic] loves ones died last nightâ€¦.she is gonna pay for the funerals! > Â < News on Ariana: Ariana has reached out to the families whoâ€™s loves ones died last nightâ€¦.she is gonna pay for the funerals! pic.twitter.com/lmGHt4GbEg â€” Ariana Updates! (@ArianaDailyWW) May 23, 2017 > Later that day, the tweet formed the basis of several articles in the British press, including in the Daily Mail,Â Daily Mirror, the Independent,Â Daily Express, and the Daily Record in Scotland.Â The Sun newspaper also published an article sayingÂ â€œAriana Grande fans claim â€˜brokenâ€™ star is going to â€˜pay for the funeralsâ€™ of those who lost their lives in Manchester terror attack.â€ However, this article was later removed from the Sunâ€™s web site.Â Later in the day, the celebrity gossip website PerezHilton.com also published an article based on the tweet, adding: < What an incredible gesture. Although Ariâ€™s team has yet to confirm the report, we bet the 23-year-old actually made this offer. > The tweet also formed the basis of reports by Business Insider and the music and entertainment website Vibe. We contacted Ariana Grandeâ€™s spokesperson, but did not receive a response to our queries. So the claim could not be definitively confirmed.Â However, itâ€™s worth noting that the source of the claim was a fan page that is not affiliated with the artist or her management in any way. The claim was not made via the Twitter account ofÂ Ariana Grande herself, her official news account, or her management team.Â Furthermore, @ArianaDailyWWÂ has a record of posting claims and rumors, some of which later turn out not to be true.Â Just a few hours before â€œannouncingâ€ the singerâ€™s offer to pay for the victimsâ€™ funerals, the account tweeted this â€œrumorâ€: Â < RUMOR: Ariana is in the Hospital for Mental Health Issues (We are not trying to spread any false newsâ€¦this is a rumor..)#DWTManchaster pic.twitter.com/2CSyq6nDCH â€” Ariana Updates! (@ArianaDailyWW) May 23, 2017 > A few hours before that, Ariana Updates! tweeted that it had deleted a previous claim after finding out it was unconfirmed. We donâ€™t know what that claim was.Â Â < We deleted our last tweet about Ariana because we just found out that itâ€™s not confirmed so please forgive us! â€” Ariana Updates! (@ArianaDailyWW) May 23, 2017 > And on 22 May, the account tweeted that a â€œsecond bombâ€ had been found at the Manchester Arena. This too wasÂ false, although police did conduct a precautionary controlled explosion on what turned out to be abandoned clothing: Â < BREAKING NEWS: second bomb has been found around the arenaâ€¦ pic.twitter.com/1glaKwC4YL â€” Ariana Updates! (@ArianaDailyWW) May 23, 2017 > AlthoughÂ itâ€™s not implausible that a celebrity would do such a thing, the claim that Ariana Grande offered to pay for the bombing victimsâ€™ funeralsÂ is based on a tweet that did not cite any sources and was posted from an unofficial Twitter fan account with a record of posting unconfirmed and false rumors surrounding the Manchester Arena attack. We could not find any news reports that cited a second source for the claim. It should therefore be viewed with extreme skepticism.Â Â