Did China ask its people 'not to respond to aliens'? Origin of bizarre claim on social media
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Did China ask its people 'not to respond to aliens'? Origin of bizarre claim on social media")
Viral claims on social media state that China asked its people not to respond to aliens.
The latest stunt being pulled by content creators on social media is about an announcement in China, asking people not to respond if an alien contacts them. Some posts even carried a fake photo that read, “Do not reply to extraterrestrials without authorisation.”
China finds itself entangled in an alien mystery after viral posts claimed that the country made an announcement, telling its people to be careful if an alien contacts them. They further claim that the government asked them to contact the United Nations if anything like this happens. "China released an official warning to citizens: Do not respond to aliens, report to the UN", most of these posts state.
Some accounts even posted the warning as an official announcement attributed to the International Academy of Astronautics, recommending that people "notify the United Nations immediately if extraterrestrial life is discovered."
"Do not reply to extraterrestrials without authorisation. The International Academy of Astronautics updates recommendations: If extraterrestrial life is discovered, notify the United Nations immediately."
However, the claims being made by social media accounts and even some podcasts are baseless and false. China has never made such an announcement.
How did the alien announcement in China rumour start?
The root of the bizarre claims seems to be the famous Chinese sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Humans on Earth are issued a warning: "DO NOT ANSWER!" otherwise the coming aliens will take over your world. Since virality is the name of the game on social media, people use anything like this to make claims that sound authentic.
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In the book, an alien race is coming to Earth because their own world dies from the 3 Body Problem. They send spies before their arrival to ensure humans never develop the technology to fight them in the 400 years that would take the alien civilisation to reach Earth.
Bizarre gravity loss claim
This is not the first absurd claim made by content creators just for views. In December last year, an account started the rumour that Earth will lose gravity on August 12, 2026 for seven seconds. The post even claimed that NASA has known about it for more than a decade and has been preparing for it. It attributed the gravity loss to a collision between two black holes. However, as expected, nothing of the story happened.
In the age of social media, disinformation and misinformation are widespread, and people need to be careful and do their own research before sharing such messages.
