The Indy and Huff Post fall foul of fake far right tweet

The Independent and Huffington Post both fell foul and reported on spoof tweet which they believed had been posted by the French right-wing politician Marine Le Pen.

The tweet heaped praise on Theresa May’s recent speech at The Conservative Party’s annual conference in Birmingham where she said: “If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere.”

Had both the publications not been in such a hurry to go to press (digitally) they might have had time to check their sources and spot the Twitter account @ElyseeMarine is clearly labelled as “Compte Non Officiel” – a phrase which even my school boy French is good enough to translate.

Had they bothered to check for just a couple more seconds, the fake account also provides a direct link to Le Pen’s official (Twitter verified) account where there was no mention of the British Prime Minister’s speech.

While both stories have since been taken offline, The Press Gazette was able to capture both title’s glee at discovering the tweet.

The Independent wrote: “One of the most controversial comments of Theresa May’s Conservative conference speech has received a ringing endorsement from French far right leader, Marine Le Pen.”

The Huffington Post said: “One of the most controversial comments of Theresa May’s Conservative conference speech has received a ringing endorsement from French far right leader, Marine Le Pen.”

Perhaps supporting the old adage “Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story”, BuzzFeed’s political journalist Marie Le Conte was quick to capture screen shots from both titles and tweet: “This week in ‘who cares if the tweet came from a parody account, all traffic is good traffic’.”

I wonder if The Independent or Huffington Post would have been so quick to publish this story if it was going to print instead of just the web?

Just because we expect our news to come thick and fast it doesn’t mean journalists can ride fast and loose with checking their facts first.