A Twitter account claiming to be Alice Munro’s publisher announced that the Canadian author had died, sending people on Twitter into mourning before the account was outed as a fake.
Munro is a well-known author of short stories. She won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature and the 2009 Man Booker Prize for her work. A Twitter account claiming to be that of McClelland & Stewart, Munro’s publisher, sent a tweet at 6:21 a.m. EST on Monday announcing the author’s death, according to the National Post.
“URGENT. McClelland&Stewart and Random House Canada announces the death of greatest short story writer Alice Munro, Nobel Prize in Literature for 2013,” the tweet said.
The fake account operated under the handle “@McClellandNews,” similar to the publisher’s actual Twitter account under the handle “@McClellandBooks.”
“Sheila Munro officially confirms the news of the death of her mother Alice Munro. A press announcement to be released soon,” the fake account said in a follow-up tweet at 7 a.m.
The pair of tweets caught traction on social media and convinced many that the popular author had died. Canadian actress Lisa Ray tweeted “RIP Alice Munro,” from her own account with over 300,000 followers.
RIP Alice Munro https://t.co/NxzKrKC4c5
— Lisa Ray (@Lisaraniray) November 11, 2019
Some Twitter users caught on to the hoax and began calling it out online.
“Alice Munro is NOT dead. Aside from the facts (we verified she’s alive), this account is obviously fake – the real account is on @McClellandBooks – but I’ve seen people with lots of followers retweeting this. Don’t get your news from just goddamn Twitter,” one user said.
Alice Munro is NOT dead. Aside from the facts (we verified she’s alive), this account is obviously fake – the real account is on @McClellandBooks – but I’ve seen people with lots of followers retweeting this. Don’t get your news from just goddamn Twitter. https://t.co/DWWwQtPVcn
— Sian Cain (@siancain) November 11, 2019
The faux McClelland & Stewart account outed itself as a fake at 8:07 a.m., claiming that the hoax account was run by Italian journalist Tommaso Debenedetti.
“This account is hoax created by Italian journalist Tommasso Debenedetti,” the third tweet said. Twitter removed the fake account soon afterward.
While Debenedetti has not said he created the account, the journalist has earned a reputation for creating fake Twitter accounts to trick people into wrongly thinking famous people have died. Debenedetti has perpetrated similar hoaxes announcing the fake deaths of the pope, the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar.
“Social media is the most unverifiable information source in the world but the news media believes it because of its need for speed,” Debenedetti said in 2012 while explaining why he carried out the hoaxes.
News of the hoax began circulating later in the morning and many began tweeting out corrections.
Alice Munro is alive (is a weird thing to tweet, but there you go.)
— Emily Nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) November 11, 2019
Someone got in quick with Wikipedia revenge on Tomasso De Benedetti for his latest tedious hoax claiming Alice Munro had died. pic.twitter.com/rHHdymdi6h
— Mic Wright (@brokenbottleboy) November 11, 2019
