An Italian journalist wanted to prove that the media is unreliable

May 10, 2012 06:52 GMT  ·  By

A Twitter account allegedly owned by Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of the former president of France, caused a lot of buzz yesterday when it announced the death of Margaret Thatcher.

“S.E.l'Ambassadeur du Royaume-Uni nous annonce en ce moment la mort de Lady Margareth Thatcher,” wrote the prankster.

The 4,000+ followers of the fake account were basically told that the British ambassador informed the French presidency about the death of the former prime minister.

The individual that created the account went through a lot of trouble making it look as authentic as possible, a lot of posts detailing the activities of Nicolas Sarkozy and other public figures.

However, the last tweet is the most interesting one.

“@CBruniOfficial fake Twitter account created by the italian journalist Tommasso De Benedetti,” read the post.

Tommasso De Benedetti is an Italian journalist who created a large number of celebrity profiles on Twitter to show the weaknesses of the media.

“Social media is the most unverifiable information source in the world but the news media believes it because of its need for speed,” he told the Guardian.

De Benedetti also took upon himself the identity of the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who apparently revealed the death of Fidel Castro back in January.

It seems that in the Carla Bruni scam, the journalist made his point. A number of news agencies quickly picked up the story and presented it to their followers.

Around 11 hours ago, Gill Penlington rushed to tell everyone that the “rumors are incorrect,” after CNN contacted Thatcher’s official spokesperson.

So is Tommasso De Benedetti’s theory about the media being unreliable correct? Apparently it can be, and Sophos’ Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley does a good job explaining why this happens.

“Media agencies are struggling to cope in a world where news breaks in an instant, and can be shared across the world in seconds via social networks. The pressure to be always up-to-date can be so great that false stories can spread like wildfire,” he explained.

“Those of us who are interested in computer security know all too well the importance of not believing everything we read, not rushing to click on a link nor open an attachment without thinking about the possible consequences,” he added.