Twitter Suicide Threat Used To Promote US Pop Singer’s Album

Police in Toronto, Canada have gone to great lengths to save a teenage girl who made threats to kill herself via Twitter, only to find out that the entire thing was a hoax constructed to promote the release of a pop album by teen idol Ariana Grande.

Police spokesperson Scott Mills, who regularly investigates such cries for help, was first alerted after Twitter user @ButerasCandiess posed as a fan of Grande’s, making threats like “I’ll take pills and I’ll kill myself,” and encouraging other fans of the singer to tweet their support.

Police in Toronto took the threats seriously and attempted to locate the girl, but soon became suspicious, with the tweets appearing to come from the USA but made to look like they were coming from Greece. The account’s activity was also a touch suss, with all of the previous tweets being either about Grande, or requests for other users to follow them.

When the user was outed by police, the prankster tweeted “It was a hoax! Sorry.” Mills revealed that the person behind the scam could be charged with public mischief, telling The Star, “This is a huge waste of our 911 dispatchers, our intelligence people, and our communications resources.”

He also said that, while Grande most likely had no idea about the tweets, they were actually effective in promoting her album, saying, “It gets people to look at the Twitter feed, right?”



(via The Star)

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