Peter Kay
comedian Peter Kay is not dead though his namesake is Wiki Commons

KEY POINTS

  • Another Peter Kay, co-founder of Sporting Chance, died in September 2013.
  • Fans tell Reid: "Don't believe everything you read on Wiki."

A football pundit mistakenly tweeted that comedian Peter Kay had died on Sunday night after being duped by a Wikipedia hoax.

Former England player Peter Reid tweeted: "Oh no can't believe this. RIP" with a screenshot of the comedian's Wikipedia page which had been edited to begin: "Peter John Kay (born 2 July 1973, died 4 February 2018) was an English comedian and actor."

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Anyone can anonymously update a Wikipedia article without the change being verified before it goes live.

Two minutes later, after a member of the public tweeted Reid to say "it's not him mate", Reid said: "Please god it's not."

Reid has almost 140,000 Twitter followers and has not deleted the tweets, which were posted at 9.30pm on Sunday (4 February).

The false claims even spread to other websites including Manchester City forum Bluemoon where two threads had people asking if Kay had died. One user, when he found out the truth, wrote: "LOL!! Whoo! The wife was almost in tears!"

Many tweeters pointed out that another Peter Kay, the co-founder of rehab facility Sporting Chance, had died in September 2013.

Reid's followers were quick to point out his mistake, with numerous people calling it "fake news" and a "nightmare".

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