The entire world, at present, is facing fear and panic amid the ongoing coronavirus scare. The deadly virus, which first appeared in China, has far spread to a streak of countries like Italy, Japan, Russia, Germany and Iran among others. Well, celebrities and commoners across are trying their best to raise awareness and share precautions to minimise the panic. Amid all this, a Twitter account that went under the name of ‘BBC Breaking News’ revealed that Harry Potter fame Daniel Radcliffe is the first celebrity case to test positive for coronavirus.
This, unsurprisingly, took the internet by storm and fans across started pouring in their concerns for the actor. However, turns out that it was simply a hoax. Phew! A journalist from BuzzFeed got in touch with Daniel’s representative and he simply rubbished all such rumours. He said, “Not true." The fake account of BBC had tweeted, “BREAKING: Daniel Radcliffe tests positive for coronavirus. The actor is said to be the first famous person to be publicly confirmed." They managed to fool hundreds of Twitter users, including New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and Politico editorial director Blake Hounshell.
The duo soon issued their apologies for encouraging the fake news. Haberman tweeted, "Earlier today, I RTed a fake BBC account and un-RTed when a very helpful reader flagged it. My apologies for the confusion." Hounshell, on the other hand, wrote, “Apologies, folks - fooled by a fake BBC account."
Take a look at the now-deleted tweet’s screenshot below:
That page that shared this news has now been suspended for violating Twitter rules and guidelines. As per CNET, the tweet was live for a whopping seven hours and was shared at least 762 times before it was finally taken down. Thank God!
image source: instagram/danielradcliffeactor