Twitter hoax reports Queen Elizabeth died

Many people would argue that 2016 has been the year of celebrity deaths. Others might say it was the year of “fake news.” A story from Britain this week showed it could perhaps be both.

Late Thursday, a Twitter account with the handle @BBCNewsUKI sent out a message claiming Buckingham Palace had announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. “Circumstances are unknown,” the tweet read. “More details to follow.”

The news had an air of believability: Elizabeth is 90 years old and has been in poor health recently. This year, for the first time in three decades, she failed to attend a Christmas Day church service near her country home in Norfolk after suffering what was described as a “heavy cold.” The queen has not appeared in public since she fell ill.

Additionally, if the queen were to pass away, it is the BBC that would make the announcement. In fact, Britain’s public service broadcaster is known to hold regular rehearsals in case a member of the royal family dies unexpectedly.

The tweet, of course, was not real. @BBCNewsUKI followed up its tweet with the rather less-BBC-like message, “Love a Tuesday off if the queens dead, announce it before it’s too late.” The account was a fairly obvious fake, and it was soon suspended by Twitter.

But rumors that the queen was dead still sparked a frenzy online, with users rushing to add condolences and others attempting to verify the news.

A number of Twitter users began tweeting that there had been a “media blackout” in an attempt to hide news of the queen’s death from the public. By Friday, it was one of the top trending topics on Twitter - though many of the tweets appeared to be mocking the idea. One curious user even jogged down to Buckingham Palace to look for signs of activity. “Silly twitter,” he concluded.

The incident appeared to confirm that rehearsals for the death of a British monarch, long murmured about by BBC journalists, really exist.

If a “Category 1” royal — a list which would include the queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Prince William — were to die, the BBC has to quickly pull together a remarkably complicated but somber event. Normal broadcasting would be interrupted for an official announcement — probably a statement from Buckingham Palace itself — and the national anthem.

It is also expected that all comedy on the BBC network would be canceled until the after the funeral is held, as it was after the death of King George VI in 1952.