The term “fake news” has undoubtedly been one of the most popular terms of 2017 and to be honest social media has been a major catalyst for the spreading of false news reports.
This is most evident right now during the political crisis taking place in Zimbabwe. When the military took over Zimbabwe's ZBC state broadcaster, it sent the world and many news agencies into a frenzy for any information relating to what’s going down in Zim.
Most media houses started relying on a social media account called @Zanu_PF which many believe to be the official Twitter handle of the ruling party in Zimbabwe. The account appeared to be in the know about the situation in Zimbabwe as it confirmed and denied rumours.
However, the account, which has over 56 000 followers, isn’t verified and is a known fake or parody account.
The BBC quoted the unverified account multiple times this morning – causing a frenzy on Twitter with users pointing out the account is actually not reliable. The media house later apologised for the mistake.
Here are some old tweets from the fake account that show it cannot be trusted.
Here is the official Zanu PF account.
