People fell for a fake BBC Twitter account saying the Queen was dead

People fell for a fake BBC Twitter account saying the Queen was dead. Image: Getty ImagesQueen Elizabeth II in the Regency Room after recording her Christmas Day broadcast to the Commonwealth at Buckingham Palace A hoax BBC News account sent Twitter into meltdown after it announced that Queen Elizabeth II had died. The @BBCNewsUKI account, which is not verified on Twitter and uses letters in mixed case to spell "UK" in its bio, has since been suspended. However, the false tweet got more than 200 retweets: Many influential people on Twitter, including the French ambassador to the U.S. Gérard Araud retweeted the message before realising it was a hoax: Among other people who fell for the hoax was Pamela McClintock, a writer for Hollywood Reporter and Frank Graves, the founder of research firm EKOS Frank Graves: Others blamed 2016: It is so 2016 that we all immediately believed that The Queen was dead because IT'S 2016. — kat calvin (@KatCalvinLA) December 29, 2016 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 One guy even rushed to Buckingham Palace to check with his own eyes: Others thought a media cover-up was taking place: The BBC's Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones described the rumour mill as "bonkers": The Sun newspaper reported a Buckingham Palace spokesman as saying: "The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh continue to recover from their heavy colds." This tweet pretty much sums up the futility of fake news.