While reddit and Weibo, the Chinese Twitter are flooded with stories about the possible assassination of Kim Jong-Un, I find myself reflecting on a curious situation: the rumors will remain just that until a government spokesperson makes a public announcement by of a traditional media outlet.
While Twitter and Weibo can start rumors and spread word quickly, it does not seem to be the place to make confirmations or denials about events of this magnitude. I expect this to change in the future, but for right now, there’s an interesting symbiosis between new and traditional media.
EDIT: Good insight from The Atlantic. Maybe the problems I talk about above, in this instance, are a mixture of cultural misunderstanding and technological shortcomings?
It may also be that the Chinese government is fuming that some white girl named Laura is blocking them from the right to tweet as @China on Twitter.
So to mess with the west, they staged an elaborate scheme to trick is into thinking that Kim Jong-Un had been killed. Dastardly.