With the advent of social media networks, sharing of news and important events has become very easy in comparison to those times when print and electronic media used to be the only medium. However, some people also use these platforms for circulating fake news and there were many cases in 2016 where fake news was posted on these networks.
Just recently, a fake Twitter account, which resembles with British news agency BBC to a great extent, made an announcement that the Queen Elizabeth II has died and a huge number of people including famous celebrities and journalists fall for it.
What made people believe it so easily was the fact that she was not well and for the first time, this year, she missed the Christmas celebration and 2016 has not been very good for many people as well.
https://twitter.com/KatCalvinLA/status/814548441892319233
This tweet was retweeted by a number of individuals who thought that the Queen actually died.
However, things went back to normal when The Sun reported about the statement given by Buckingham Palace spokesman who said, “The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh continue to recover from their heavy colds.”
Thankfully, the confusion ended and the fake Twitter account was suspended.
I just fell for a fake BBC account announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth II because it seemed obvious with this year.
— Christopher Campbell (@thefilmcynic) December 29, 2016
yes thanks . I removed it and noted the error.
— Frank Graves (@VoiceOfFranky) December 29, 2016
One die-hard fan even visited the palace of the Queen and posted a picture of the outside view:
Just did a jet lagged jog to the palace. It's totally quiet, nothing is going on. Silly twitter. #LongLiveTheQueen! #mediablackout pic.twitter.com/L1uqGvwO9X
— Charlie Archer (@1CharlieArcher) December 30, 2016
But as the news of the Queen being alive was confirmed, it was the time for funny memes and gifs! Have a look:
https://twitter.com/strangebtr/status/814710584763707392
We just hope that 2017 doesn’t come with this type of incidents.