This fake news report (the text and headline have been obscured intentionally) led to a surge in traffic on the West Seattle Herald website on Monday June 19, blocking access for several hours.
A fake news report that claimed Amanda Knox had committed suicide and confessed to murder in a note led to a huge surge of traffic to the West Seattle Herald’s website on Monday June 19.
The site, masquerading as CNN in a what appears to be a very sophisticated looking fake put up the post which led to over 300,000 hits on the site, overwhelming it and blocking traffic for several hours on Monday.
Ken Robinson, Managing Editor for the site said,” We’re happy to report that Amanda is alive and well. We’ve reported the site to the CNN Copyright violation’s department and blocked certain
offending IP addresses connected with the surge.”
Amanda herself said via Twitter, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
A look at the registration on the site shows that it is registered in Singapore to a Daniel Li but this is likely a false identity.
