Hong Kong curfew rumours sweep cyberspace as ‘exclusive’ from China’s Global Times fuels the fire
- Local TV station Now had already denied being the source of the claim before a tweet from the state-owned tabloid sparked a media frenzy
- The tweet was later deleted, but by then the international news media had picked it up, sending stocks down
Rumours that the Hong Kong government would impose a weekend curfew swept the city and cyberspace on Thursday, fuelling tensions after five months of unrest.
The speculation began to spread quickly over the internet around noon on Thursday and some rumours claimed the news came from local broadcaster Now TV. That prompted the network to issue a statement denying that it had carried such a report.
But the rumours continued to spread and drew even more interest when Global Times, a tabloid affiliated with People’s Daily, published a post on its Twitter account repeating the rumour.
“#BREAKING: #HKSAR government is expected to announce curfew for weekend: sources,” it read.
The item was immediately picked up by many major news outlets including Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Bloomberg. They all cited the tweet by Global Times as the source.