Dead Actors Hoax

In recent years the internet and social media has been the medium to spread lies and propaganda about celebrities dying off

. This usually starts on a social media page like Twitter or Facebook and quickly spreads, becoming second hand knowledge without people realizing that there is no truth to the matter. This not only causes unwanted attention to celebrities who must make statements revealing that they are in fact alive, but it also shows how much the general public is willing to believe and spread based off of a 140 statement.

Even high profile celebrities who are always in the news fall victim to this, and in fact it seems to work easier with them. When a celebrities name is a household one it is easier to spread information via word of mouth or little blue bird. This year, Morgan Freeman was one of the most recent and notable names to fall victim to the wide reaching hoax.

A Facebook page was made in his honor that detailed his death and asked people to comment and like or link the page for remembrance. This was the only release about the prominent Freemans supposed death but over 850,000 people liked the page. This spread to millions of people on Facebook and Twitter before people began to realize that it was a hoax after an acting representative gave a press release stating that Freeman was alive.

A simple Facebook page, status, or Twitter update is almost always the cause of these hoaxes and has affected actors such as Adam Sandler, Alfonso Ribeiro, Owen Wilson, and Eddie Murphy are some of the other big names to be recently affected by this social media bomb.

While some people may regard this as funny, most do not. The victims of this prank are inundated with calls from friends, families, fans, and loved ones who hear about their deaths. This not only wastes their time as they try to console distraught individuals, but also must be incredibly emotionally taxing as they are constantly reminded of their own mortality.

And of course there is the issue of us, the general public, buying into whatever we read online. Besides constant warnings of dont believe what you read on the internet, people eat up the death hoax when they read a friends status update, who got it from a friend who, got it from a friend the list goes on.

It does not look like these will be stopping anytime soon either. It is all too easy to make a fake Twitter account and start tweeting about a fake dead celebrity, and even easier to start an entire Facebook page dedicated to them. People need to realize that any prominent figure who passes away will certainly be mentioned in multiple media outlets, not just the social ones. A quick search engine search before spreading the message could slow, or even stop, the spreading of these hurtful hoaxes. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.

by: Zack Mandell

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