Gevonden via welingelichte kringen en de Times:

Vorige week doken in alle kranten de berichten op over mogelijk vreemdgaan van de Franse president en zijn vrouw Carla Bruni. De Times ontwarde nu hoe dit bericht uiteindelijk in de pers is geraakt. Blijkbaar een twitterberichtje van een journaliste:

“Bron was Aude Baron, een Parijse online journalist die op Twitter meldde dat Bruni buitenechtelijk bezig was met een liedjesschrijver en dat de president het bed hield met een van zijn ministers. De hele wereld nam dit over en al snel was Sarkozy gedwongen op een persconferentie in Londen uit te leggen hoe het allemaal echt zat…
Baron zegt vandaag tegen The Times dat ze niks had nagetrokken, het was maar een geintje.
The Times legt nu uit hoe een en ander in zijn werk is gegaan, maar pleit de hoofdpersonen in kwestie ook niet geheel vrij. Want het gerucht dat Sarko en Bruni vreemdgaan, gaat al rond sinds februari 2008, sinds de dag dat ze met elkaar trouwden.”

Nog een lijstje van recente fouten die leefden op twitter:

— Egyptian Twitter users have been abuzz the past two weeks with the rumour that President Mubarak had died while undergoing a gall bladder operation in Germany on March 6. The rumours caused the Egyptian stock market to drop by more than 6 per cent in the two days after his operation. He has since emerged, walking and very much alive

— After the massive earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010 “news” spread on Twitter that American Airlines and the discount carrier JetBlue were offering free tickets to Haiti for doctors and other medical specialists wanting to help with the relief effort. The tweets were accompanied by the telephone number of Haiti’s consulate in New York. The phone system at the consulate went into meltdown after a massive wave of calls prompted by the false rumour

— The British actress Emma Watson condemned fraudsters after a number of them posed as her and spread false rumours about her choice of university. Others who have been convincingly impersonated on Twitter include the Dalai Lama and the actor Christopher Walken

— In 2009 twitterers and bloggers spread the rumour that the pop star Lady Gaga was a hermaphrodite. The speculation grew so feverish that the US singer was forced to address the rumours, branding them “humorous” and “ridiculous”

— A twitterer claimed on February 18 that Gordon Lightfoot, the iconic Canadian folk singer, had died. Pretending to be Lightfoot’s grandson, the prankster left a message supposedly for a friend, Ronnie Hawkins, saying that the singer had passed away. Canadians began mourning the star but were relieved when they heard Lightfoot on the news channel CP24, laughing off the hoax. “I was quite surprised to hear the news myself,” he said. “I haven’t had so much airplay for weeks”

— In March 2009 claims appeared on Twitter that the President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, had been ousted and had sought refuge inside the US Embassy in Antananarivo, the capital. American diplomats immediately began a Twitter campaign to debunk the rumours, afraid that the allegations would lead to a siege on the US Embassy there