CLAIM
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, a tweet about actor Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame being the first ‘famous person’ diagnosed with novel coronavirus is doing the round on social media.
It was posted by a Twitter account named ‘BBC Breaking News’ with the handle name @BBCNewsTonight. The tweet read, “BREAKING: Daniel Radcliffe tests positive for coronavirus. The actor is said to be the first famous person to be publicly confirmed.”
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim is false.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Under their live reporting section, BBC called the account in question as “fake.”
On being questioned whether the actor had been tested coronavirus positive, Radcliffe’s publicist said, “Not true,” Buzzfeed News reported.
Further, the account in question didn’t possess a blue tick, which is a sign of a verified account. On the contrary, the official account of BBC Breaking News does have a blue tick and the handle’s name is @BBCBreaking.
Moreover, according to the Buzzfeed article, the fake account had only 125 followers while the official handle of BBC News is followed by over 40 million people.
Evidently, a fake account of BBC Breaking News tried to spread misinformation that actor Daniel Radcliffe was tested coronavirus positive.
The fake account has now been suspended by Twitter for violating the rules.
You can read all our fact-check stories on coronavirus here.
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