Did US investment guru Warren Buffett tweet wise words on emotion and suffering? A meme circulating on Facebook in a number of African countries claims he did.
“You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you,” it reads. “True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.”
The meme seems to be a photo of a printout of a tweet from “Warren Buffett” on the handle @WarrenBuffettHQ. The profile photo shows the Berkshire Hathaway CEO.
The graphic has also been shared on Twitter. But did Buffett really tweet these words?
A factcheck by the BBC and Lead Stories found it was in fact from the fake Twitter account @warrenbuffet99, which has since been suspended.
There were three clues that the account was fake. First, it spelled the billionaire’s surname as “Buffet”, leaving off the second T at the end.
Second, the fake account did not have the blue verification badge used to indicate the genuine feeds of famous people. Third, as the BBC points out, the account’s tweets were odd. They were all inspirational quotes, with no mention of Buffett’s business activities.
And a spokesperson for Berkshire Hathaway told US broadcaster ABC News that the account was fake.
The Twitter account@WarrenBuffettHQ has also been suspended.
Buffett’s real Twitter account, @WarrenBuffett, has the blue verification badge and 1,553,730 followers as of 21 August 2019. It shows that Buffett joined Twitter in April 2013 and posted his first tweet on 2 May 2013.
While Buffett is not active on social media, his Twitter activity looks more like what you would expect from him. The tweets show what Berkshire Hathaway has been up to and what Buffett believes in and stands for.
Another Facebook post attributes the quote to the late actor and martial arts legend Bruce Lee. But we could find no evidence that Lee ever said it. – Grace Gichuhi
“You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you,” it reads. “True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.”
The meme seems to be a photo of a printout of a tweet from “Warren Buffett” on the handle @WarrenBuffettHQ. The profile photo shows the Berkshire Hathaway CEO.
The graphic has also been shared on Twitter. But did Buffett really tweet these words?
Original source of quote
A factcheck by the BBC and Lead Stories found it was in fact from the fake Twitter account @warrenbuffet99, which has since been suspended.
There were three clues that the account was fake. First, it spelled the billionaire’s surname as “Buffet”, leaving off the second T at the end.
Second, the fake account did not have the blue verification badge used to indicate the genuine feeds of famous people. Third, as the BBC points out, the account’s tweets were odd. They were all inspirational quotes, with no mention of Buffett’s business activities.
And a spokesperson for Berkshire Hathaway told US broadcaster ABC News that the account was fake.
The Twitter account@WarrenBuffettHQ has also been suspended.
Buffett’s verified Twitter account
Buffett’s real Twitter account, @WarrenBuffett, has the blue verification badge and 1,553,730 followers as of 21 August 2019. It shows that Buffett joined Twitter in April 2013 and posted his first tweet on 2 May 2013.
While Buffett is not active on social media, his Twitter activity looks more like what you would expect from him. The tweets show what Berkshire Hathaway has been up to and what Buffett believes in and stands for.
Another Facebook post attributes the quote to the late actor and martial arts legend Bruce Lee. But we could find no evidence that Lee ever said it. – Grace Gichuhi
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Further Reading
[email protected]: The challenges of working across Africa
Misinformation knows no borders and Africa Check often responds to similar false claims from country to country.
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