Fake Tweet About the Death of Syria’s President
Softpedia, Aug 7 2012

Italian journalist Tommaso De Benedetti is responsible for yet another hoax that caused a lot of waves. He created a fake Twitter account representing Russian Minister of Interior Vladimir Kolokoltsev and posted a tweet saying that Syria’s president had been killed. Three tweets were posted yesterday from the @GembaJapan account bearing the name of Kolokoltsev:

Attention. Russian ambassador in Damascus reports that president of Arab republic of Syria Bashar al Assad has been killed or injured. According to unconfirmed report from Russian diplomats in Damascus president Assad has been killed today. Russian government confirms: Bashar al Assad, president of Syria, has been killed today in Latakyja with his wife and two people.

A tweet posted sometime later revealed the identity of the prankster. However, according to ZeroHedge, the messages have caused a real stir, even influencing the oil market. “West Texas Intermediate soaring by over $1 to just shy of $92, on what very well may be completely fake news, dragging the entire market higher with it,” Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge explained. In the meantime, the Russian ministry and the embassy have denied the claims, stating that Kolokoltsev doesn’t even have a Twitter account, Reuters reports. This is not the first time when De Benedetti pulls a stunt like this, declaring someone dead. Back in May, he created a fake Carla Bruni Twitter account and posted a message in French, claiming that Margaret Thatcher was dead. He also impersonated Italian PM Monti and made up a story about Fidel Castro’s death. The journalist’s goal is to demonstrate that social media is the “most unverifiable information source in the world.” The success of his hoaxes is based on the news agencies’ “need for speed” when it comes to releasing stories.