Did fake news and the ease with which it spreads around the social web help get Donald Trump elected president last week?

Many argue yes. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for one, insists the answer is no.
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SEE ALSO:Everyone's sharing this Ernie Johnson election monologue, but here's why it's off the mark。

Monday offered a case study in how a story can appear out of thin air, pick up momentum and spread across the internet like wild fire. This story is about an NBA trade — its stakes are of course much lower than something that could impact a presidential election. But you'll recognize many of the phenomena at work here. 。

The rumor started rolling downhill Monday morning. It said the mighty Golden State Warriors could be preparing to trade one of their All-Stars, Klay Thompson, to the Boston Celtics for two role players and a future draft pick. 。

By Monday afternoon, the rumor was getting play in major locations — if you were just scrolling through social media feeds, you'd easily be forgiven for granting it some veracity. 。

"Klay Thompson trade rumors are swirling around the NBA," read the headline on a "moments" story compiled by Twitter. Colin Cowherd discussed it on his nationally televised sports-talk show. It was covered by national websites. 。

Speculation snowballed. It became a trending topic. And why not?

Speculation snowballed. It became a trending topic. And why not? It was a juicy story, this rumor. 。

Thompson plays for the NBA's most-scrutinized team, but one that hasn't quite hit the ground running after reloading this off-season. Perhaps the Warriors were making a panic trade. Meanwhile, the Celtics play in one of America's most sports-obsessed metropolitan areas. The trade could instantly improve their team.。

Much like the fake political news that circulates on Facebook, this rumor was counter-intuitive at first blush — but fit into some popular storylines and contained information that at least one group of people could want to believe. 。

The catch, though: There was nothing to Thompson the story. Nothing at all. The Warriors said Monday afternoon that no such trade discussions involving Thompson exist — but the story never should have gotten to that point. 
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Let's examine how it did.。Mashable Top StoriesStay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news.Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter
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The origins of a bogus story
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Scalabrine (left), in 2010 when he played for the Boston Celtics.Credit: John Raoux/AP 。

The rumor started with Brian Scalabrine. He's a longtime NBA player who retired in 2012. He played for the Celtics among other teams, and was briefly an assistant coach for the Warriors' minor league team. Now he's a Celtics analyst for Comcast SportsNet New England. 。

So when Scalabrine said on a Sirius XM radio show that he'd heard a rumor about the aforementioned trade centered on Thompson, people listened. But it seems, they didn't check the story out at all — either that, or it simply felt too fun to check.。 By the time Scalabrine himself took to Twitter to try to clear the air, the rumor had grown legs of its own.。Scalabrine said on Twitter that "it's not my rumor or my sources. It's just something I read over the week that I thought was interesting." So then, where did he read it? A publication called the。 A publication called the。

Morning Ledger
。 , Scalabrine said on Twitter. 。 Ah, yes, the。

Morning Ledger —

a site arguably no one in sports media had heard of before Monday. Let's learn a little bit about it. 。 The article Scalabrine cited ran Friday. It featured a question headline: "Boston Celtics Trade With Golden State Warriors For Klay Thompson?" It said Thompson, "is already being linked to a possible trade with the Boston Celtics."
。But it didn't offer so much as an anonymous source within the Celtics or Warriors, or from anywhere else. The "already being linked" bit in the
。 Morning Ledger。article appeared to refer to ... yup, the
。

Morning Ledger 。 . That's some internet inception right there.。 But there's more. A quick spin around the。

Morning Ledger
 。

site also should have tipped reporters off Monday. Here's another headline that ran the same day as the Thompson rumor picked up steam: "End Of The World 2016: November 14 Supermoon Will Kill Us All – Here’s How".。 Mmmhmmmm. This is what happens when journalism and #content collide.。Trade rumors are part of the fun of being a sports fans, no doubt. But typically, when a story picks up steam like the Thompson one briefly did Monday, there's at least some shred of credibility behind it. An anonymous source. 。

Something。

Something。

. 
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Typically, too, fake news and its effect on American democracy aren't hot-button topics in the public discourse — timing that makes the rise-and-fall of this Thompson rumor echo more than it normally would.
。But welcome to the internet in late 2016, where the prevailing mood is something like this:。But welcome to the internet in late 2016, where the prevailing mood is something like this:。¯\_(ツ)_/¯