Is it true that all computer chess programs can be forced into a three-fold repetition draw?
What your friend is saying isn't "fake news", it's outright bull****. Of course computers can recognize 3-fold draws, in fact just about the first step of writing a new engine is to tell the engine what the rules of the game are. 

Here're the relevant lines in Stockfish's code:


bool Position::is_draw(int ply) const {

 if (st-&gt;rule50 &gt; 99 &amp;&amp; (!checkers() || MoveList&lt;LEGAL&gt;(*this).size()))
     return true;

 // Return a draw score if a position repeats once earlier but strictly
 // after the root, or repeats twice before or at the root.

 if (st-&gt;repetition &amp;&amp; st-&gt;repetition &lt; ply)
     return true;

 return false;
}