What is the claim?
Posts circulating on social media falsely claim that American singer Bruce Springsteen and actor Robert De Niro recently announced that they will be relocating to Canada due to the "unrest in the United States."
One such Facebook post (archived here) shared pictures of Springsteen and De Niro captioned, "BREAKING: Legendary stars Bruce Springsteen and Robert De Niro have announced that they will be relocating to Canada due to the unrest in the United States. Full detail in comment."
The link included in the comment leads to a website named "animal-together.com," which said that the celebrities announced their plans to relocate due to "growing frustrations with the U.S. social and political climate."
Archived versions of similar posts shared on Facebook can be viewed here, here, here, here, and here.
The claim is also being shared across Threads, and the links to those can be found here, here, and here.
However, the claim is false and originates from websites claiming to share satirical content.
What did we find?
We found no credible news reports to support the claim. The article linked in the viral post's comments provided no evidence, and other posts referenced articles from different domains, but none contained any proof.
Springsteen's official website and social media accounts on X, Instagram, and Facebook have shared no evidence supporting the claim. De Niro has no official social media accounts, and no credible reports support such an announcement.
A Google search led us to a report published by the website Esspost (archived here) on November 18, 2024, with a very similar headline: "Bruce Springsteen and Robert De Niro Say Farewell to the U.S, 'No Respect Here.'" The article was published after U.S. President Donald Trump's victory in the November 2024 presidential elections. It is clearly labeled as "Satire" at the beginning next to the publication date. The end of the article reads, "NOTE: This is SATIRE, It's Not True."
Additionally, the website's About Us page describes it as "Welcome to the US page of Esspots (A Subsidiary of SpaceXMania.com specializing in Satire and Parody News), your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary about the United States of America."
The article posted on Spacexmania (archived here) is also explicitly labeled as satire. The About Us page states, "Welcome to our website, owned and operated by Funky Productions LLC. We are a team of writers and editors based in New York, USA. Our mission? To bring you the freshest fake news, some sassy analysis, and a good dose of satire."
Logically Facts has also published a similar claim on Springsteen, which claimed that he would leave the U.S. in December 2024. The fact-check can be read here.
Although both articles clearly state that the story is satire and false, many social media users have shared it as real news. Logically Facts recently published a detailed article explaining how satire and parody content can fuel misinformation on social media, which can be read here.
The verdict
Bruce Springsteen and Robert De Niro have made no such announcement about relocating to Canada. The claim is false and emerged from websites that claim the articles were satirical.