Fact Check

Are AMC Theaters Serving Nanobots to 'Sound of Freedom' Audiences?

The claim spread as AMC's CEO "slammed" conspiracy theories about screening disruptions during the film.

Published July 14, 2023

 (@mrnastynodrama/Twitter)
Image courtesy of @mrnastynodrama/Twitter
Claim:
In July 2023, AMC Theaters served nanobots to "Sound of Freedom" film audiences.

On July 12, 2023, a tweet went viral from a person who claimed to be a former AMC Theaters employee and who reported being fired for refusing to add a liquid that contained nanobots to the soda of a customer who was seeing "Sound of Freedom." 

The claim spread as AMC Theaters' CEO "slammed" conspiracy theories about the company purposefully disrupting screenings of the film, after the movie was accused of stirring QAnon conspiracy theories. 

"I work at AMC and just got fired for refusing to add this liquid to a customer's soda," the tweet said. "We were instructed specifically to serve this to Sound of Freedom audiences. I am a microbiology student and took it to the lab to examine and found what looks like nanobots inside." (In 2019, NBC described nanobots as robots that were only a few hundred nanometers wide, with 25 million nanometers composing an inch.) Attached to the tweet were two photographs, one that had a vial with yellow liquid inside it and another that showed what appeared to be a cell.

We found posts related to the claim that included the tweet on other social media platforms, including Facebook and Reddit. We also received emails about the claim from Snopes readers.

We found the claim was false. The photograph of the yellow liquid attached to the tweet had nothing to do with nanobots. It was posted to Reddit in October 2020, with the title, "Small glass vial sealed with yellow liquid found in attic space Lawrence Ks. 1997."

     Small glass vial sealed with yellow liquid found in attic space Lawrence Ks. 1997
by      u/maxxpuff in      whatisthisthing    

 

The other photograph that was attached to the tweet was credited to the University of Pennsylvania in a 2022 article by Slash Gear. The article was about how injectable nanobots could walk around inside a person's body.

Besides the photographs, the original Twitter account that made the post also admitted that it wasn't real. When another account said that the post was a literal lie, the original account replied, "Duh." 

We've previously looked into other claims about "Sound of Freedom," like whether Netflix or Amazon refused to stream the movie.

Sources

Gent, Edd. "These Tiny Robots Could Be Disease-Fighting Machines inside the Body." NBC News, 30 Mar. 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/these-tiny-robots-could-be-disease-fighting-machines-inside-body-ncna861451.

"https://twitter.com/onmyheartHH/status/1679325290542288896." Twitter, https://twitter.com/onmyheartHH/status/1679325290542288896. Accessed 14 July 2023.

Ibrahim, Nur. "Did Netflix and Amazon Refuse to Stream 'Sound of Freedom' Film?" Snopes, 10 July 2023, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/netflix-amazon-sound-of-freedom/.

maxxpuff. "Small Glass Vial Sealed with Yellow Liquid Found in Attic Space Lawrence Ks. 1997." R/Whatisthisthing, 13 Oct. 2020, www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/jahi63/small_glass_vial_sealed_with_yellow_liquid_found/.

Roston, Brittany. "These Injectable Nanobots Can Walk Around Inside A Human Body." SlashGear, 8 Mar. 2019, https://www.slashgear.com/777282/these-injectable-nanobots-can-walk-around-inside-a-human-body/.

Sharf, Zack. "AMC Theatres CEO Slams Conspiracy Theorists Over 'Sound of Freedom' Disruption Claims: 'So Much Garbage Information Is Spread.'" Variety, 13 July 2023, https://variety.com/2023/film/news/sound-of-freedom-boycott-amc-theatres-ceo-slams-claims-1235669439/.

Izz Scott LaMagdeleine is a fact-checker for Snopes.

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