April Fool's Day: What Is Off Limits?

This year's April Fool's day which has been part of the annual tradition all over the world will not be celebrated by big companies due to the negative impact that it will bring most especially for those who are fighting a deadly and infectious disease.

APRIL FOOL'S DAY

There is no exact origin as to when April Fool's Day began. But it was speculated that it started in the 16th century and it evolved in the 19th century where the celebration involves children misbehaving or doing pranks. Centuries after, newspapers and radios began to prank their listeners and readers.

April Fool's Day was used also in recent years as part of the marketing of different social media and other online services. The scheme is to make the prank viral to boost the visitors to the site. In the past few years, vloggers around the world take this as an opportunity to prank their friends to boost their social media account.

GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, AND TWITTER

Google is known for its numerous elaborate pranks every year. However, they will not participate in this year's April Fool's day to show respect to people who continue to combat COVID-19. According to a recent report, Google wants to make sure also that there will be no small pranks or easter eggs that will be published.

Alex Boese, author of "The Museum of Hoaxes: A History of Outrageous Pranks and Deceptions," said: "It definitely does seem a little tone deaf to be making these kind of jokes that really have the goal of promoting your business at a time when so many people are out of work."

This year's April Fool's Day is something very different. Amid the severity of COVID-19 that infected hundreds of thousands of people and claimed thousands of lives as well around the world, social media companies called everyone to skip the celebration this year specifically any related prank about COVID-19.

At present, there are 872,912 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and with a death toll of 43,271 according to the worldometer. The numbers still increase day by day. This has caused many establishments to shut down and furloughed millions of employees worldwide. This is not a joke? Right?

Meantime, it seems that everyday is an April Fool's Day for many because of the volume of fake news and misinformation about COVID-19 that are spreading online, forms of conspiracy theories, memes, and hoaxes.

For this reason, Facebook, Twitter, and Google joined together to combat fake news and misinformation about COVID-19 most especially in this year's April Fool's Day. It is very important to take note that there is a big difference between humor and harm.

Boese said: "Your jokes should never do any real harm to anybody; they shouldn't hurt people or potentially cause injuries."

He added that while this year's April Fool's Day is not a great opportunity due to the impacts and effects of COVID-19, but this could be a great year to strengthen the bond of the family.

Boese concluded: "If you have a prankster at home, somebody who loves the pranks, it's a great year to prank your family or friends at home or whoever you're stuck at home. It's a day that I can predict parents are going to dread."

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