[Editor’s note: After this story was published, Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday afternoon. Buckingham Palace announced the longest reigning British monarch’s passing at 1:30 p.m. EST on Thursday. “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”]
A BBC correspondent sent waves of panic across social media after falsely tweeting that Queen Elizabeth II had died Thursday morning after Buckingham Palace expressed concerns over her health.
The since-deleted tweet, posted at around 3 p.m. local time by BBC anchor Yalda Hakim, per the Mirror, had incorrectly stated: “BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth II has died aged 96. Buckingham Palace has announced.”
This faux announcement coincided with a BBC report stating that there would be a new update about Elizabeth at 3 p.m. local time (10 a.m. Eastern) — leading many royal-loving Twitter users to believe that the worst had occurred.
The UK news outlet has since confirmed that the update was a “false alarm,” while Hakim apologized in a follow-up tweet backtracking her comment.
“I tweeted that there had been an announcement about the death of the Queen,” wrote the broadcaster, who hosts BBC World News’ “Impact With Yalda Hakim.” “This was incorrect, there has been no announcement, and so I have deleted the tweet. I apologize.”
Twitter was quick to rake Hakim over the coals over the premature report. “How can you tweet there has been...
The author and behavioural scientist, Gad Saad, has just published a book on what he calls “suicidal empathy”. He says that “a society dies when it cares more about exhibiting infinite tolerance a...