Fact Check: Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen is alive and kicking; media outlets fall for fake post
Sen’s daughter and actor Nandana Sen posted a clarification stating that news about his father’s death is fake.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 11 Oct 2023 3:47 AM GMT
On October 10, several media outlets claimed Nobel laureate and renowned economist Amartya Sen passed away at the age of 89.
Media outlets such as Times of India, Zee News, First Post, Business Today, and Deccan Chronicle, including online news portal Free Press Journal, Moneycontrol, and The Siasat Daily, reported about the alleged death of Amartya Sen.
(Image Credit: Firstpost)
Media outlets picked up the news about the death of Sen from a post on X (formerly Twitter) by an account in the name of Nobel prize winner Claudia Goldin.
(Image Credit: Archive/@profCGoldin)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found the claim. Sen’s daughter and actor Nandana Sen posted a clarification stating that news about his father’s death is fake.
While examining the alleged X account of Claudia Goldin, we found the handle on October 9 posted about winning the Nobel prize, which included a spelling error. The post read, “Very happy to announce that I won the Nobel Prize in Economics for 2023. Thanks!!! (sic).
On October 10, the account in another post said that it was a hoax account. The post read, “This account is a hoax created by Italian journalist Tommaso Debenedetti.”
(Image Credit: Archive/@profCGoldin)
At the time of writing this article, the account does not exist on X.
Further, we found the original X account of Professor Claudia Goldin (@PikaGoldin), which has been active since 2013. The bio also has a link to her Harvard profile.
According to a 2012 article in The Guardian, Tommaso De Benedetti is a serial fake peddler. He has repeatedly faked the identities of world leaders and fooled editors into publishing false stories. In the past, Debenedetti, from fake accounts, has posted about the death of Kazuo Ishiguro, the pope, and Fidel Castro. De Benedetti said to the newspaper, “Twitter works well for deaths.”
Finally, we came across a clarification on X from Nandana Sen, busting the fake news about his father's death.
“Friends, thanks for your concern but it’s fake news: Baba is totally fine. We just spent a wonderful week together with family in Cambridge—his hug was as strong as always last night when we said bye! He is teaching 2 courses a week at Harvard, working on his gender book—busy as ever!” read the post.
Hence, we conclude that fake news about Amartya Sen’s demise was posted by an imposter account was picked up by media outlets.
