Stephen King spread fake news about Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) earlier this week yet, even after learning he’d spread bunk, has refused to delete the tweet.
DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state.
I. Can't. Even.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 6, 2022
Sounds stupid? It certainly does. But when you’re liberal and you hear something that is stupid but it affirms what you want to believe, you don’t bother questioning it. King had apparently come across a Salon story from last year with a false headline and didn’t question the source of the story. As such, with 6.7 million followers, many people saw King’s tweet and believed it. Some pointed out he was peddling misinformation, and the bestselling author eventually told CNN that he regretted the false tweet.
“I regret having posted the headline without being more confident the story was correct. Salon is usually more reliable. Twitter is a constant learning experience, and I will try to do better,” King said.
How sorry is he though, really? Not much, since, as of Saturday morning, King hasn’t deleted the tweet. But perhaps even worse is the fact that Twitter hasn’t flagged the post as false.
Salon, despite their article’s false headline, only just changed it after it went viral again this week. Better late than never, I suppose, but why won’t King delete it or Twitter flag it as false?
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