For any of you who “read-follow” the Olympics, you might have noticed that during the opening ceremony the last Olympic ring didn’t open. According to the Daily Currant, Boris Avdeyev, the technician responsible for the rings, was found dead the next morning with multiple stab wounds. Instead of trying to find the murderer, the police ruled it an “accidental suicide,” suggesting it could have been due to falling on a set of knives.
If you do not know about the Daily Currant, it is a fictional news page that relates back to real world issues or events. Boris Avdeyev is completely fine and in good health in Russia. For those who were unsure whether the death was true or not, there were many clues in the article pointing at the fact that it was made up. For one, there was the whole “falling on a set of knives” ruling, and Guy LaFleur, a former Canadian hockey player, was told to ignore the fact that he saw three large men walk out of Boris’s room after hearing some strange noises. Alexander Zhukov, a Russian economist, supposedly claimed that Putin loves accountability and therefore Putin could have been behind the murder. In the article, Zhukov was called the President of the Olympic Committee.
At the end of the article the interviews had to be cut short because the hotel had started to crumble. It was another reference to the hotels that were finished only two hours before athletes were due to move in.
The article “Man Responsible For Olympic Ring Mishap Found Dead In Sochi” did catch many people’s attention and starting trending in some places. This reminds us all how we really have to keep our eyes open to fake news like this and make sure we don’t get sucked into a hoax. The Daily Currant isn’t the only fake news website. There are many others, so always make sure to read the “About” pages to sites like these, it can always save you from trouble later on.
