J.K. Rowling Killed 2 People In 1993 Drunk Driving Incident Hoax

About

J.K Rowling Killed 2 People In 1993 Drunk Driving Incident Hoax refers to a hoax orchestrated by an informal group of Twitter users trying to highlight Twitter's bot problem. In June 2023, various Twitter users baited T-shirt bots into making merchandise featuring the cover art for a Harry Potter book, alongside text that made the false and satirical statement, "In 1993, J.K. Rowling killed two people while driving drunk. We are subject to all British libel laws." Bots that scrape images to make unofficial unlicensed merchandise have previously been baited via an orchestrated campaign on Twitter in 2019.

Background

Twitter has a documented history of hosting bot accounts that scrape artwork from the internet in order to create unlicensed T-shirts and merchandise. In 2019, several Twitter users conducted an informal campaign to bait such bots into sharing T-shirts that read, This site sells STOLEN artwork, do NOT buy from them!

On June 11th, 2023, Twitter^[2] user @MrTooDamnChris posted a tweet that read, "Just saw someone wearing this t-shirt. Where can you even buy a t-shirt like this?" The user attached an image of a T-shirt design that contained the cover art for a Harry Potter book and text that read, "In 1993, J.K. Rowling killed two people while driving drunk. We are subject to all British libel laws." The post gathered over 52,000 likes in a day (seen below).

Spread

Various automated bots posted replies to @MrTooDamnChris's original Tweet with links to T-shirts that featured the phrase, "In 1993, J.K. Rowling killed two people while driving drunk. We are subject to all British libel laws." @MrTooDamnChris^[3] quote tweeted one such reply on June 11th, 2023, gathering over 4,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). Also that day, Twitter^[4] user @PDXAccountabil1 posted a reply to the thread showing how Google results for the quote lead to unlicensed T-shirt websites uncritically parroting the claim about J.K Rowling (seen below, right).

On June 11th, 2023, Twitter^[5] user @Esqueer_ posted a tweet baiting T-shirt bots on Twitter by using an image originally shared as part of an Oxfam video that some consider to be a caricature of J.K. Rowling. The tweet gathered over 6,500 likes in less than a day (seen below, left) and elicited several bot responses^[1] (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References