SpongeBob’s Home is Not Epstein’s Private Island
The Claim
The address used for the famous pineapple under the sea in the cartoon Spongebob SquarePants is actually located off the shore of Jefferey Epstein’s private island.
News posted on
Emerging story
In July 2020, users on social media began circulating the claim that SpongeBob SquarePants’ address from his TV show, 124 Conch St., Bikini Bottom, is the same as Epstein’s estate on the island of Little St. James in the Caribbean.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation into this claim reveals it to be false. As the Wall Street Journal reported in June 2019:
"Google’s ubiquitous internet platform shapes what’s real and what isn’t for more than two billion monthly users. Yet Google Maps is overrun with millions of false business addresses and fake names, according to advertisers, search experts and current and former Google employees
Google still can’t seem to stop the proliferation of fictional business listings and aggressive con artists on its search engine. The scams are profitable for nearly everyone involved, Google included. Consumers and legitimate businesses end up the losers."
In other words, there are many individuals who are able to edit Google Maps — which was posted in the screenshots of the social media users making this claim — to make it say anything they want to. Combined with the fact that Google has removed the listing from its Maps since this rumor has spread, it would seem that this was a prank in poor taste that went too far, and not an instance of a pedophile naming his island’s streets after children’s cartoons.
