The implementation of 25 percent tariffs on imported automobiles back in early April has certainly left an impact on the automotive industry as a whole, and that’s also true of Ford, though it has been impacted less than almost all of its peers thanks to its robust American manufacturing presence. Despite this – and the fact that Ford has been quick to tout its large American footprint as of late – folks still tend to fall for fake stories that appear online, and that was also apparently the case with some recent videos pushing false information about the automaker’s supposed desire to offshore its U.S. production.
According to Snopes, this all began earlier in May when the YouTube channel Auto Central released a video claiming that Ford “has announced that it will shut down critical elements of its U.S. vehicle production and relocate operations overseas. These wide tariffs make it too expensive for foreign countries to continue purchasing American-made automobiles, trucks, and electric vehicles. As a result, Ford is being compelled to relocate manufacturing overseas, a significant step that might affect thousands of American workers and the future of American auto industry.”
That video contains AI-generated text and images, coupled with this false information, but it has thus far received over 700k views, regardless. The same is true of another video posted just a few days ago by the YouTube channel Auto Edge, which contains fake images and false information claiming that Ford is shutting down its production in the U.S. That video is already up to nearly 700k views as of this writing, too.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen false information pertaining to Ford surface online and cause quite the uproar, either. Last November, a post began circulating around social media claiming that Elon Musk was acquiring Ford, and just this past April, a rumor surfaced claiming that Ford planned on moving four assembly plants and 25,000 jobs to the U.S., which was based on a post from a satirical website and quickly spread across social media.
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