A fake Twitter account for British author, John le Carre' started rumors on Wednesday morning that Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling had died in an accident.
The tweet caused online chaos and caused many retweets by at least 150 of the followers.
The tweet that was posted said this;
"A terrible news. My publisher phones me announcing that J.K. Rowling dies by accident. Few minutes ago. No words!,"
A few minutes later another tweet was posted saying this;
"Little Brown, the Rowling's publisher, confirmed. J.K.Rowling died. Press release soon. Please, wait official am.,"
Many of the followers were stunned, confused, and shocked at the tweet, some posting;
"RIP J.K. Rowling"
"J.K. Rowling is dead?? What???"
The good news is that, she is not, the fake twitter account that was opened a few days ago by someone claiming to be the British Spy novelist Le Carre' started the hoax.
The account has over 2500 followers, though many of the few posts on the Twitter account have poor grammar and many spelling mistakes. Plus the L in the authors name is not supposed to be a capital L.
The fake account has been suspended.
This is not the first death hoax of a celebrity that has traveled through the social media pages. Lil Wayne, Bill Cosby, Taylor Swift, Alfonso Ribeiro, Jon Bon Jovi, and Bill Nye The Science Guy have also "died" via twitter and facebook announcements in the past months.
They are all alive and well though.
It is also not that probable that if Rowling had passed away that le carre' would be the one announcing it, and via twitter at that.
This just goes to show the power that social media sites have. Just because someone posts it on Twitter or on Facebook, does not mean it is true,
Research before re posting or retweeting something and causing an avalanche of chaos and drama online.
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