Le Roi est Mort!

In order to test some of my followers ability to judge fake news from real facts, I decided to conjure up a miniature scheme to see if any would fall for it: The King is Dead!

I spent several months living in Brussels, Belgium, and out of all of my family and friends (besides actual Belgians) I am seemingly the only one that follows or knows anything that’s ever going on in the quiet little European capital, excluding world news such as terrorist attacks. Those are a big deal. Most people don’t even know that the Kingdom of Belgium (Royaume de Belgique / Koninkrijk België) even has a royal family. Much like the United Kingdom, the Belgian royal family is basically just a celebrity face with no major authority anymore — basically only to bring the country together in times of turmoil. Since 2013, Belgium has been under King Philippe Léopold Louis Marie / Filip Leopold Lodewijk Maria. (Belgium is notorious for its inclusivity among French and Dutch speakers, even though nearly all citizens can speak both languages.)

Hoping to not start a panic, I didn’t want to fake a terrorist attack even though that’s the only news anyone seems to follow about Belgium. Therefore I posted this status:

Unfortunately, I didn’t get as much of a response as I was hoping for, but to my surprise, some of those who reacted to my status with the ‘sad emoji’ are actually living in Europe right now and should know better than anyone that this was fake. I also posted it at a time that I knew Belgians would be sleeping so any of my Belgian friends that would see my status wouldn’t catch it right away, (not to debunk). The next day, one of my friends did see my status and commented in shock saying, “What? Where did you see that!?”

I posted a follow-up comment to make sure those following my status knew it was a fake, including my Belgian friend (who would most certainly know it was fake to start with.)

Long live the king!