Do Not Open “Dance of the Pope” Video, Formats Your Mobile: Fact Check

Story:

Please inform all contacts from your list not to open a video called the “Dance of the Pope”.. it is a virus that formats your mobile. Beware it is very dangerous. They announced it today on BBC radio. Fwd this msg to as many as you can!

Other Versions

1. URGENT: Tell all contacts from your list not to accept a video called ‘The Dance of the Pope’. It is a virus that formats your mobile phone. Beware, it is very dangerous. Today announced on the radio. Passes to the greatest number. It was announced on the radio in the United States.

2. Hello All, i received this URGENT warning- To NOT accept a video called the dance of the Pope. It is a virus that formats your mobile. Beware is very dangerous. You have fun with your list already, people open it thinking that it is a joke. They are spreading it today on the radio. Pass it on to those who can

Facts Analysis:

Certain stories doing rounds on social media platforms like the free messaging app WhatsApp warns users not to open a video called the “Dance of the Pope,” saying it is a very dangerous virus that formats your mobile, leaving it to factory defaults. It is also said that the warning was also conveyed through Radio. Fortunately, the claim of the dangerous virus in ‘The Dance of the Pope’ video comes from a hoax chain message.

The message has been doing rounds on social media sites and also through emails for more than a year now, and comes as a serious warning, so users keep forwarding it to others. However, there’s no such warning/announcement on any radio of BBC or others. It did not originate from WhatsApp support team either. There’s no evidence that there’s a video called ‘The Dance of the Pope,’ which when opened installs a virus that formats your mobile phone. The message is in fact very similar to another hoax story that warned about a virus in a ‘Sonia Disowns Rahul‘ video. So quite certainly, the ‘Dance of the Pope’ Virus warning is a hoax that seems to have been created by pranksters.

As for the actual ‘Dance of the Pope‘ video is concerned, in 2013 at the beginning of a meeting with the College of Cardinals in the Vatican, Pope Francis stumbled a bit as he got off his elaborate seat. Some videos edited and looped that stumbling clip of Pope Francis to show as if he did a ‘Two-step’ Dancing.