After it was announced that the BBC would not be renewing Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson’s contract, co-host James May announced that his next step would require “a lot of careful thought.” That’s so far pretty much all he’s said. But a lot of people have been suckered in by this imposter Twitter account.
And specifically, that one tweet above. As of this writing, it stands with 461 re-tweets and 408 favorites.
The @Mr_JamesMay account only has about 690 followers, a number that has increased significantly from earlier today. And all day, it’s been busy re-tweeting praise from random people on Twitter. Sadly for those random people, however, the account isn’t associated with the real James May as far as we can tell.
Because the real James May’s verified account is just ever-so-slightly different, under the handle @MrJamesMay. The cock-up, as the real May would call it, is a bit understandable if for nothing else than the dummy account is setup to look much like the real one, with the same picture, a similar handle, and plausible statements. It’s not that it isn’t likely that James May won’t be hosting Top Gear anymore, but he hasn’t made any definite statements as such just yet.
So it isn’t real.
You can stop sharing it now.
Photo credit: Getty Images