KFC China pushes back against ‘eight-legged chicken’ allegations

Contrary to some rumors making the rounds in Chinese social media venues, the chickens that KFC uses do not have six wings and eight legs. That’s according to Yum Brands China, which is suing the rumor’s main perpetuators.

From Reuters:

Yum said the rumours, which include digitally altered photos of deformed chickens and rumours of maggots in a KFC delivery order, have been spread through 10 WeChat accounts operated by Yingchenanzhi Success and Culture Communication, Shanxi Weilukuang Technology Co and Taiyuan Zero Point Technology Co.

In a statement issued in Chinese, a Yum rep called the rumors “nonsense.”

The brand also identified 4,000 social media messages that it deemed defamatory, and determined that 100,000 people read those messages. This led to the brand demanding that each company listed in the suit pay 1.5 million yuan (that’s about $242,000).