Fake News: Dutch King Willem-Alexander Did NOT Threaten President Trump With International Court of Justice Via Twitter

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Dutch King Willem-Alexander Did NOT Threaten President Trump With International Court of Justice Via Twitter

Did Dutch king Willem-Alexander threaten President Trump with prosecution by the International Court of Justice in The Hague via a tweet he sent in reply to a tweet made by President Trump about illegal immigration? No, that's not true: the tweet was sent by a parody account but was widely mistaken for a real tweet by people who don't understand Dutch. It did not happen for real.

The tweet was published by Twitter account @WillemAlexander on June 19, 2018 using the name"ZM Willem-Alexanderâ™”" (archived here) which read:

Screenshot of https://twitter.com/WiIIemAlexander/status/1009150370868850688

It came in reply to this tweet by President Trump:

But the bio of the Willem-Alexander twitter account that sent the tweet indictates it is a parody:

ZM Willem-Alexanderâ™”
@WiIIemAlexander
Werkend vader, echtgenoot, zoon & broer. Twittert op menig titel waaronder een parodiërende en niet politiek correcte. Zonder ministeriële verantwoordelijkheid.

Translation: "Working father, husband, son and brother. Tweets under many headings including in a parodic and politically incorrect way. No ministerial responsability." (our highlight).

The account also didn't come with a verification check from Twitter.

The real king Willem-Alexander has no twitter account.

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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