Britney Spears Oops I Did It Again Memes

Britney Spears vs. Somali Pirates Meme

Claim

"In 2013, Britney Spears' music was used by British Naval Officers to ward off Somali Pirates on the eastward declension of Africa."

Similar this fact check?

Reporting

Advertisements On February nine 2022, a "fun fact" meme explaining that the music of popular star Britney Spears was used to repel Somali pirates in 2013 appeared on Imgur:

Spears was shown at the top left of the meme, and a group of men in a small boat, artillery raised in an apparent gesture of surrender, appeared on the top right. Text beneath the meme read:

DID YOU KNOW?

In 2013, Britney Spears' music was used by British Naval Officers to ward off Somali Pirates on the east coast of Africa. According to ane officer: "As soon equally the pirates become a boom of Britney, they move on as quickly as they can." The popular star's hits "Oops! I Did It Over again" and "Infant One More Fourth dimension" are being used to scare off the Somali pirates.

No sources appeared aslope the meme. One commenter responded:

Imgur credulously upvoting unsubstantiated factual claims will never get old. You got a source for this @OP? #journalistic_integrity

We plant a November 2021 variation on the meme shared to Facebook by the folio "The Sea Shack." That iteration'south watermark was non cropped out, but nosotros were unable to locate an original version linked to the watermarked image.

Contextually, the meme referenced a broader issue of modern-twenty-four hour period piracy. A January 2012 entry on the United Nations' African Renewal sub-site provided background for pirates in Somalia:

[In 1991], when the government of Somalia complanate, few imagined that the country's ongoing state of lawlessness would eventually spawn piracy on such a scale that the security of the western Indian Bounding main region could be threatened. At first, many assumed that pirate attacks on passing ships could be speedily stifled. Simply the problem has grown into a global malady that and so far has warranted seven Un resolutions, one of which authorized "all necessary means to repress piracy and armed robbery at bounding main."

According to the UN'south International Maritime Organization (IMO), the problem is a global ane, with 276 acts of piracy or armed robbery against ships reported worldwide in 2010. With failed attempts added, the total climbed to 489, a twenty per cent increase from 2009. Although the South China Bounding main suffered the most attacks, piracy off Due east Africa, much of it carried out from Somalia, came in 2nd.

Looking just at attacks in international waters, East Africa was well in the lead in 2010, reports the IMO. The only lives lost that yr were during East African attacks, while the number of crew members taken earnest there, normally for bribe, reached 629, far higher than anywhere else. According to the International Maritime Bureau, a piracy reporting eye based in Malaysia, some 54 coiffure members and passengers have been killed worldwide since 2006.

The meme referenced 2013 as the year during which "British Naval Officers" purportedly leveraged Britney Spears' hits to frighten and repel Somali pirates. hat twelvemonth, a number of news organizations carried or referenced the story, with the start returned result from The Guardian in Oct 2013:

In an first-class case of "hither's a sentence yous won't read every mean solar day", Britney Spears has emerged as an unlikely figurehead in the fight confronting Somali pirates.

Co-ordinate to reports, Britney's hits, including Oops! I Did It Again and Baby One More Time, are being employed by British naval officers in an effort to scare off pirates forth the east coast of Africa. Perhaps zero else – not guns, not harpoons – is quite as intimidating as the sound of Ms Spears singing "Ooh baby baby!"

Merchant naval officer Rachel Owens explained the tactics to Metro …

In that excerpt, ii pieces of context appeared. I was the use of "according to reports," and the other was a purported original source — British tabloid Metro.co.uk.

The Guardian linked to the Metro.co.uk article, which was published on October 27 2013. It sourced the information from statements by a merchant navy officers, and it read in part:

Her hits are blasted out to deter kidnap attacks, merchant navy officer Rachel Owens revealed.

Spears's nautical chart-toppers Oops! I Did Information technology Again and Baby One More Time have proved to be the about effective at keeping the bandits at bay.

Second Officer Owens, who works on supertankers off the due east coast of Africa, said: 'Her songs were chosen past the security squad because they thought the pirates would hate them almost.

'These guys can't stand Western culture or music, making Britney's hits perfect.'

[…]

'It'south and so effective the transport's security rarely needs to resort to firing guns,' said the 34-yr-old, from Gartmore, virtually Aberfoyle, Stirling.

'As soon as the pirates get a blast of Britney, they movement on every bit quickly as they can.'

Almost subsequent versions of that story relied on that unmarried-source claim from a tabloid. NBC News and Fox News reported the thinly-sourced claim without caveats, whereas The Atlantic and Business Insider tacked a cautious "Apparently" to the get-go role of their headlines.

Withal,The Atlantic included some broader information well-nigh the use of sound equally a deterrent — suggesting that Spears' music itself was not necessarily the issue, simply the volume at which information technology was played was:

The idea is that Britney Spears is (for ameliorate or worse) synonymous with Western culture, and Somali pirates hate Western culture, so therefore, it deters them. And that's one-half the story. While Britney Spears might be the music that irritates Somali pirates most, Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) defense systems take been in use for a while. LRADs nail walls of audio which bring people to their knees, and have been used to quell riots and deter pirates in the past. "In 2008, a British prowl ship successfully used LRAD to repel Somali pirates. LRAD is a proprietary product of the LRAD Corporation, who make a significant portion of their sales from commercial aircraft," Fast Company reported.

Essentially anything played that loud would be unbearable. And Britney Spears is just the weapon of choice. The other deterrent for Somali pirates would be the small fact that a vessel that is armed with an LRAD probably has people armed with guns onboard.

In July 2021, when Spears and her controversial conservatorship was in the news, Face2FaceAfrica revisited the pop claim. That site included a video published to YouTube on Oct 29 2013 (purportedly showing the music being played at ocean), and grating sound from the video aligned with its reiteration ofThe Atlantic's context:

A report by The Atlantic at the time said that the pirates were likely less scared past Spears herself and more by the volume her songs are played. The study added that Long Range Acoustic Device systems accept been used to scissure downwardly on rioters and deter pirates in the past, diggings "a wall of sound which bring people to their knees."

A long-circulating meme (shared to Imgur in February 2022) claimed that British Naval Officers frightened Somali pirates away by playing music past Britney Spears in October 2013; purported video of her music beingness played at ocean was linked in a 2021 item virtually the claim. The story appeared to be sourced otherwise near entirely from an October 2013 tabloid item and a statement by one person. An commodity fromThe Atlantic (where "plainly" appeared in the headline) indicated that "anything played that loud would be unbearable," postulating that if the merits was accurate, Britney Spears was "just the weapon of choice."

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Source: https://www.truthorfiction.com/britney-spears-vs-somali-pirates-meme/

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