After fooling hundreds of Singaporeans and a few foreign news outlets, the perpetrator behind the Lee Kuan Yew death hoax — a random teen who's not even 16 yet — has been issued a stern warning by the police in lieu of prosecution.
His doctored image had spread across social media on Mar 18, five days before the late statesman passed away in Singapore General Hospital. Media outlets such as CNN, Phoenix New Media and Chinese broadcaster CCTV erroneously published reports of his death on their channels before retracting them.
Explaining the motive behind his actions, the teen — who cannot be named due to his age — explained that he did it to "demonstrate to his friends how easy it was for a hoax to be perpetuated," TODAY reports.
After consulting the Attorney-General's Chambers, the police decided to only issue a stern warning. The teen asserted that his frustration over rumours about the passing of Lee drove him to create the image to prove a point to his friends, and did not intend for his hoax message to be widely disseminated.
By the time the culprit informed his friends that the image was not an actual photo, the image had already been forwarded to other recipients. Truly an ironic twist, as he had unintentionally created a hoax in his quest to prevent people from believing in hoaxes.
Reportedly, the teen has been extremely remorseful and deeply regrets the inconvenienced caused. All factors — including his personal circumstances, readiness to accept responsibility and full cooperation with the authorities — lead to his evasion of serious prosecution.
Photo: Lee Hsien Loong Facebook page
After fooling hundreds of Singaporeans and a few foreign news outlets, the perpetrator behind the Lee Kuan Yew death hoax — a random teen who's not even 16 yet — has been issued a stern warning by the police in lieu of prosecution.
His doctored image had spread across social media on Mar 18, five days before the late statesman passed away in Singapore General Hospital. Media outlets such as CNN, Phoenix New Media and Chinese broadcaster CCTV erroneously published reports of his death on their channels before retracting them.
Explaining the motive behind his actions, the teen — who cannot be named due to his age — explained that he did it to "demonstrate to his friends how easy it was for a hoax to be perpetuated," TODAY reports.
After consulting the Attorney-General's Chambers, the police decided to only issue a stern warning. The teen asserted that his frustration over rumours about the passing of Lee drove him to create the image to prove a point to his friends, and did not intend for his hoax message to be widely disseminated.
By the time the culprit informed his friends that the image was not an actual photo, the image had already been forwarded to other recipients. Truly an ironic twist, as he had unintentionally created a hoax in his quest to prevent people from believing in hoaxes.
Reportedly, the teen has been extremely remorseful and deeply regrets the inconvenienced caused. All factors — including his personal circumstances, readiness to accept responsibility and full cooperation with the authorities — lead to his evasion of serious prosecution.
Photo: Lee Hsien Loong Facebook page