--- title: "UK Government Denies That King Charles Has Secretly Died" description: "Russian news outlets were caught spreading fake news about the death of King Charles, which the British embassy in Moscow had to dispel." date: "2024-03-18" modified: "2024-03-18" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/king-charles-alive-uk" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "england" - "image editing" - "Russia" - "the digest" --- # UK Government Denies That King Charles Has Secretly Died ![Russian news outlets were caught spreading fake news about the death of King Charles, which the British embassy in Moscow had to dispel.]() *\Image: Hannah McKay / Pool / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* ## From Russia With Love The king is alive! Long live the king! As the [*Daily Dot* reports](), Russian outlets including *Sputnik* have advanced the phony claim, based around a grainy and clearly-manipulated screenshot meant to be a Buckingham Palace memorandum that said, with none of the pomp and circumstance associated with the English royalty, that "[the King passed away unexpectedly yesterday afternoon]()." https://twitter.com/Andrew__Roth/status/1769696573259210965 Other news outfits in the country, including the state news wire *TASS* and the Kremlin's *Rossiyskaya Gazeta* newspaper reported that their competitors had been pushing disinformation, as did the British embassy in Moscow, which took to X-formerly-Twitter to dispel the rumor. "Reports of the death of King Charles III of Great Britain are fake," a translation of the [embassy's X post](), which was written in Russian, reads. ## Palatial Concerns This hilariously fake news item comes amid some unfortunate real news regarding the Windsors, which includes a [cancer diagnosis for the king]() and the conspicuous [public absence of Princess Kate Middleton]() following abdominal surgery earlier in the year. Strangely, the palace itself has been embroiled in another mini-scandal related to manipulated media this month — although in this case, it looks like the royals were the ones doing the manipulation. In the midst of speculation and confusion about Middleton's absence, Kensington Palace's social media accounts suddenly sprang to life, posting a photo of the princess and her three children with Prince William showed them all beaming brightly with joy. As [eagle-eyed netizens noted](), however, those smiles were a bit *too* wide, and paired with other visual inconsistencies, it appeared mightily like the image had at very least been edited, if not with AI tools than with Photoshop at very least. https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1766750995445387393 The hack job might not have been quite as obvious as the one used to spread the phony claim about King Charles, but it was overt enough the [*Associated Press* issued]() a rare "kill notification" on the photo. Soon after, other major outlets like the *New York Times* and the *Washington Post* followed suit in [retracting the photo](), and after the [prince and princess' account claimed]() that Middleton herself had doctored the photo, [*AFP* announced]() that it would no longer treat Kensington Palace as a trusted source. As of now, it's unclear who did the doctoring on the fake royal memo about Charles' untimely death. **More on manipulation:** [*Meta's Plans to Label AI-Generated Content Are a Sad Fart*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()