The fake reports of the monarch’s demise went around the internet so rapidly that Buckingham Palace had to respond, tellingThe exact origin of the rumour seems unclear, but it was picked up by two popular Russian Telegram channels – Baza and Mash.in the style of official royal announcements complete with the Palace’s official letterhead, claiming to be from Royal Communications.
It was dated March 18, and claimed: “The King passed away unexpectedly yesterday afternoon .”declaring the Queen’s death back in 2022 – except, crucially, it did not appear on the Royal Family’s official website or on any of its official channels.Even so, it was picked up by business newspaper Vedomosti, news site Gazeta.Ru and state-owned agency Sputnik.
The latter reported: “King Charles III of Great Britain has died at the age of 75, according to media reports. There is no information about this on the Royal family website or in the British media.” Then social media began to speculate that BBC presenters were dressed all in black , and that its logo had been changed to the same colour .Another rumour, that the BBC was on standby for a major royal announcement, added fuel to the fire as #royalannouncement started trending.Luckily, authorities started to pick up on the rumour and managed to debunk it relatively quickly.Once the rumours were officially denied by the Palace, Russian outlets started to update their websites, too.