Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears Swept Into Internet Death Rumors Miley Cyrus had died Britney Spears had passed away

Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears Swept Into Internet Death Rumors

Last week, the news of Michael Jackson's death nearly broke the Internet, as many Web sites reporting the news experienced slowdown and breakdown. Somewhere in the traffic (and combined with the news of Farrah Fawcett's passing), a handful of other fake deaths snuck up on unsuspecting celebrities.

The most notable was the rumor that actor Jeff Goldblum had suffered a fatal fall in New Zealand (Goldblum is alive and well). There were also rumors that Harrison Ford had died (he remains upright as well). Both were based on spurious news reports that were linked and Tweeted numerous times.

Over the weekend, two new rumors surfaced: One announcing that Miley Cyrus had died, and the other suggesting that Britney Spears had passed away. In Spears' case, the rumor of her death stemmed from a message that showed up on her Twitpic account, which was hacked over the weekend.

The Cyrus story spread around this morning appears to merely be re-Tweeted stories linked to an older fake story about her involvement in a car accident. There were false reports that Cyrus had died in a collision in Los Angeles last September.

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