© Provided by The Independent
Lord Alan Sugar has been bombarded with criticism for spreading fake coronavirus claims via his Twitter account.
Donald Trump v Lord Alan Sugar on Twitter Ding. Donald Trump v Lord Alan Sugar on Twitter Ding Ding! The Full Social Media Battle! By Jack de Aguilar in Lifestyle / Showbiz on 07 December 2012. The latest tweets from @LordSirAlan. Alan Sugar called for the return of Mauricio Pochettino on his personal Twitter account as Tottenham laboured to a goalless draw against Bournemouth on Thursday. Alan Sugar Twitter: The Apprentice star APOLOGISES for 'racist' World Cup tweet ALAN SUGAR sparked outrage on Twitter after posting a “racist” tweet regarding the Senegal World Cup 2018 squad, but.
The Apprentice host this afternoon (30 April) posted a screenshotted image falsely claiming that the Nobel laureate Dr Tasuka Honjo had declared Covid-19 “not natural” and “made” by China.
“In the wake of the pain, economic loss, and unprecedented global suffering caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, I am greatly saddened that my name and that of Kyoto University have been used to spread false accusations and misinformation,” he wrote in a statement.
Numerous Twitter users slammed Sugar for spreading the claims, with some demanding that Twitter shut down his account in response.
“Please delete this,” wrote one follower. “It’s fake news and very dangerous.” Another added: “Get rid of this chump’s blue tick.”
© Provided by The Independent Alan Sugar’s tweet, which shared false conspiracies about Covid-19 (Twitter)Asked by a Twitter user for the source of the text in Sugar’s tweet, Sugar replied: “Who knows.”
When another person tweeted at Sugar that the text was “fake news”, Sugar wrote that he “just passed it on” and “didn’t write it”.
Nearly two hours after posting the original message, Sugar clarified that the Honjo quotes were fake, writing: “Looks like, to quote Donald [Trump], that was fake news…”
Who knows https://t.co/Tm4Rdv69pg
Alan Sugar Twitter Rolex
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) April 30, 2020Sugar has yet to take down his original tweet, which has been retweeted more than a thousand times in the two hours since it was posted.
Gallery: The Apprentice confirms what happens to profits made from tasks (Good Housekeeping)
What was claimed
Accounts on Twitter resharing a post about journalism failing to capture the mood of the country is a coordinated bot effort.
Over theweekend, it was suggested that there might have been coordinated effort from a number of Twitter accounts to share a part of a viral post about UK journalists missing the “mood” of the country. Some on Twitter have also claimed this was the work of “bots”.
The post these supposedly suspicious tweets quote from was brought to prominence last week when a screenshot of it was shared by Alan Sugar on Twitter, but it had been circulating on Facebook before that. Other versions of the post had also appeared previously on Twitter too.
The most widely shared section of the post reads: “Journalism is missing the 'mood' in this great country of ours - the United Kingdom. We do not want or need blame. We do not want constant criticism of our Government who are doing their very best in a very difficult and unprecedented global emergency”
As we’ve discussed before, copy and paste posts like these are unlikely to be bot activity. The accounts sharing this message have very little in common—they were created at varying dates, have tweeted about different topics prior to sharing the tweet, and took different approaches to sharing the post’s content, some just sharing one part of the post while others shared larger parts, or added their own opinions or feelings. Also, relatively few accounts are actually sharing the post on Twitter.
Alan Sugar Twitter Press
The original post these tweets quote from encourages people to share its sentiment, so it’s likely people are just following this instruction.
Alan Sugar Twitter Media
First Draft News’s article on how to spot a bot is a helpful guide to whether something is legitimate bot activity.
Sir Alan Sugar
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