A BOGUS claim that the Queen had died spread widely on social media last night, sparking panic among some royalists.
The hoax began after fictitious messages were posted on Twitter suggesting the monarch, 93, had died on Sunday morning.
The messages were said to be from a private group chat involving members of the Queen's Guard, warning them to prepare for two weeks of ceremonies.
One user named Gibbo reposted a message he claimed to have been forwarded which set out preparations for a state funeral.
The message said: “Queens passed way this morning, heart attack, being announced 9.30am tomorrow.
“Channel dash 0800 tomorrow in full number ones.
“In you black kit bag you need: One set of threes, one set of fours, underwear and socks for two weeks, washing kit, body washing kit, cities for stand down.”
Gibbo added under the message: “From a guards reg WhatsApp group.”
However, while the messages spread widely online, no media outlets reported the death as there are royal protocols in place to announce such events.
Editor of The Herald, Donald Martin, said the hoax showed the importance of reliable media outlets.
"In a world awash with fake news, spin and misinformation, the importance of credible, trusted news providers has never been greater," he said.
"Unlike the internet giants who can freely disseminate untruths, the UK is regulated and held to the highest professional standards."
When the Queen does die, the Prime Minister will be informed of the news ahead of its public release via the Queen’s private secretary.
He will then inform the 15 countries and 36 Commonwealth nations where the Queen is head of state.
Historically, the BBC has always been told about royal deaths ahead of other media outlets.
However, nowadays it’s common for major announcements to go out to the world’s media at once via a news agency such as Press Association.
The Palace refused to comment on the hoax.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here