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Conspiracy theorists rarely need much encouragement to dream up a new crazy rumour.
Soon after an announcement from Buckingham Palace that Her Majesty the Queen had caught Covid-19 and was scaling back her daily schedule, people in the wilder corners of the internet started theorising that the 95-year-old monarch had died and her death had been covered up.
Rumour-mongers didn’t even wait for the Covid announcement, with posts dating back to at least mid-December, and a few of the more imaginative rumour-mongers speculated that Her Majesty’s Christmas message might have been an AI-powered deep fake.
But the wild rumour have reached fever pitch this week, as some US-based social media users have latched onto the “London Bridge is down” secret code phrase that is expected to be used in official circles immediately after the monarch’s death.
Except, being mainly Americans, they don’t actually know what London Bridge looks like, and have been posting photos of its more photogenic cousin Tower Bridge instead.
Which slightly undermines their claim to have secret inside knowledge of what’s going in inside the Royal Family.
But despite the rumour being roundly debunked, some are still convinced that Her Majesty has left the building.
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Jason Lee, who’s behind showbiz news site Hollywood Unlocked, claimed: “We don’t post lies and I always stand by my sources. Waiting for an official statement from the palace”.
He has been under fire for posting a news story claiming that “sources close to the Royal Kingdom” had revealed the Queen was one her way to attend the wedding of Vogue editor Edward Enniful when she was “found dead”.
Just one of the hundreds of scathing responses on Twitter came from Peter D., who wrote: “Because the palace would definitely get in touch with a no-mark American gossip columnist to report the death of a monarch. If I recall, her father's death was announced by Perez Hilton”.
And among the hundreds of mocking responses to a photo of Tower Bridge captioned with a cryptic message about Her Majesty , was one which read: "Why are you saying “tick tock” and posting a picture of Tower Bridge”? I don’t remember seeing a clock in it from memory and it’s certainly not renown for its time keeping abilities".
Her Majesty, as much as royal fans might like her to, won’t live forever.
But any report of her death will be released by official sources to major UK and world news outlets and not, we are fairly sure, be broken by one or two Twitter users with over-active imaginations and a lot of spare time on their hands.
The palace also released a statement this week that the monarch is experiencing mild cold-like symptoms after contracting Covid.
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- Prince Charles
- Queen
- Royal Family
- Conspiracy theories
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