Kalam advisor’s death sparks false rumours

www.mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, March 22, 2011: "Kalam" was one of the top Twitter trends Tuesday afternoon, all because of a false rumour circulating about former President APJ Abdul Kalam’s death. "Abdul kalam" and "abdul kalam latest news" were also the top two most searched for keywords on Google India.

In fact, Dr Hafiz Saleh Muhammad Alladin, a renowned astronomer and educational advisor to the former President, passed away on Monday following a brief illness. Some people confused the news for APJ Abdul Kalam’s death and Twitter was flooded with tweets about his death and also those rebuffing the news.

A tweet from author Shobha De, paying homage to Kalam, further fanned fire. De later deleted the tweet and posted an apology for the gaffe. Apparently the story about Kalam’s death started as an SMS and then made its way to Twitter and other social networking services.