Bowling Green massacre

The "Bowling Green massacre" is a nonexistent incident referred to by U.S. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway in interviews with Cosmopolitan and TMZ on January 29, 2017, and in an interview on the MSNBC news program Hardball with Chris Matthews on February 2, 2017. Conway cited the "massacre" as justification for a travel and immigration ban from seven Muslim-majority countries enacted by United States President Donald Trump. However, no such massacre ever occurred. Conway later said she meant to refer to the 2011 arrest of two Iraqi refugees in Bowling Green, Kentucky on various charges including "attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to al-Qaeda in Iraq".

Her Hardball misstatement went viral. The phrase became the top trending topic on Twitter, with many of the tweets parodying the statement. A website was set up anonymously for the purpose of collecting donations for victims of the imaginary massacre. Facebook users used the site's safety check feature to pretend the event was real. Additionally, vigils were held in Kentucky and New York to commemorate the nonexistent massacre. It also provoked widespread press reaction, with many sources relating it to Conway's earlier use of the phrase "alternative facts" to describe false statements by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer in the wake of the inauguration of Donald Trump.

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