SPOKANE, Wash. — Sometimes, a video gains traction and it causes you to lose a little hope in humanity.
The video du jour is put out by a Facebook page called "2Kool". Over clips from popular movies and stock footage of attractive women, it pledges free beer, free housing, and $5,000 per month to any man who moves to Iceland and marries at least one woman.
The premise of the video is a claim that women outnumber men in Iceland, and the government is in desperate need of immigrant men to "repopulate" the country.
Watching, it's tempting to think the video is actually satirical. Maybe it's intended to be. But, there's never a punchline in the video, and a disturbingly high number of people commenting and sharing the video seem to be taking it at face value. After just 24 hours online, it had amassed more than 3 million views.
So, let's make this very clear: The claims in the video are false.
This is a recycled hoax from the last couple years, which made our Verify job easier. Online fact checker Snopes already did a lot of the legwork, and we also turned to the Government of Iceland's Immigration website.
First of all, the entire premise is false. Rather than having too many women and not enough men in Iceland, men actually slightly outnumber women. And instead of offering newcomer’s money, the Directorate of Immigration's website says you have to prove your own financial support before you're granted a residence permit.
So gentlemen, before packing your bags and moving to Iceland, make sure you've got the cash and you're prepared to find your wife yourself.
Coming up next week, we'll verify if 'gullible' is indeed written on the ceiling.