False podcast uses Beyonce, Jay Z to register voters, say duo 'consciously uncoupled'

Marvyn Harrison, a communications strategist from London, used Beyonce and Jay-Z to get people to register to vote in the 2019 General Elections.

Marvyn, who is also the host of the podcast "Dope Black Dads," tweeted an image of the couple with the caption: "Beyonce and her 'rapper' husband Jay Z confirm their 'Conscious uncoupling' | via @BBCBreaking."

When the shocked fans of the Hollywood couple clicked on the article, they found it to be a hoax that led them to a page to register to vote in the upcoming UK general election on Thursday, December 12. The link takes people to the register to vote page on Gov.uk. The tweet has garnered thousands of reactions till now.

"I'm very sorry for using your marriage as a hoax for the British public. But thank you," the man later said for Beyonce and Jay-Z after running fake news about their marriage.

Harrison says all the responses to the hoax have been pretty positive adding "this is just for the goodwill of people having their voice." In fact, Harrison is now being praised for using clickbait with a good motive.

"You got me. Finally registered though," a Twitter user wrote while another said, "How to use click-bait for the greater good," adding a clapping sticker. Another user labelled him a "genius" for the trick.

Harrison says he first implemented the idea in a WhatsApp group where they were discussing the election, and later took it to Twitter when he received favourable response, reports BBC.

"I was just getting a bit bored of the apathy. So I made it to post in my own group, basically, as a decoy to get them to register. And then they all laughed at it. So I posted it on Twitter - and then it kind of built a life of itself," he said.

Friday saw a massive spike in voter registration and Harrison seemingly played a part in it. He confessed the rise of 308,000 registrations in a day were mostly because of the efforts of grassroots organisations. The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, November 26.