CLAIM: Oktoberfest in Germany banned Budweiser brands.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The claim stems from a satirical website that includes a disclaimer that everything it publishes “is fiction.” No such announcement has been made by either Oktoberfest or Budweiser.
THE FACTS: Claims that the prominent beer brand was banned from Oktoberfest, Munich’s world-famous annual beer festival, are spreading widely on social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and TikTok, with many users sharing a blog post as evidence.
“Budweiser Brands Won’t Be Welcome at Oktoberfest For The 1st Time in 75 Years,” one user wrote Sunday on Twitter, repeating the blog post’s headline. The tweet was shared more than 6,000 times.
The blog post itself suggests that the ban was due to recent backlash from conservatives over Bud Light’s partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender social media influencer. Both Bud Light and Budweiser are owned by Anheuser-Busch.
But the claim is fabricated. The website is a subsidiary of America’s Last Line of Defense, a network of websites that publish satirical content that is often mistaken as real. The website’s about page states: “Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real.”
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