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No, Walmart stores aren’t becoming FEMA camps
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- These claims are unfounded. A Walmart spokesperson said there’s "no truth" to them.
A Facebook post that cobbles together several shaky video clips is presented as evidence that Walmarts are becoming Federal Emergency Management Agency camps to imprison Americans.
The existence of such camps is part of a long-running and debunked conspiracy theory, and this post does nothing to contradict that.
"What’s HAPPENING to all the WALMARTs ‘Might become FEMA,’ reads text over the video.
The post’s first clip shows what looks like a long wooden box in a store that is described without evidence as a "stairway to tunnels."
"Underground facility, it’s like a base, that’s the top of it, why in the hell would Walmart Supercenter need that," someone says in the next clip, taken from a car driving by an unidentified building.
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The following clip, also filmed from a car that the person says is in the "parking lot of a Walmart in Nevada," highlights "containers here."
In the next one, someone driving in a Walmart parking lot in "Medford, Oregon," says: "I’ve become really intrigued in the idea that Walmart might become a processing center for martial law when FEMA camps start up."
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The post’s video clips are speculative and provide no evidence that Walmarts are being converted into FEMA camps to imprison Americans. We found no news stories or other credible sources to corroborate their claims.
Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesperson, told PolitiFact there is "no truth to what was posted."
We rate this post False.
Our Sources
Facebook post, April 28, 2023
PolitiFact, Claim of FEMA ‘prison camps’ is part of long-running, thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory, Jan. 20, 2022
Email interview with Randy Hargrove, Walmart spokesperson, May 4, 2023
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No, Walmart stores aren’t becoming FEMA camps
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