Hong Kong and Hollywood legend Jackie Chan is not dead, despite what you might have read on Twitter. The 56-year-old action star is still kicking (pun definitely intended) despite reports that the actor suffered a fatal heart attack.
Chan isn’t the first actor to fall victim to the dreaded Twitter death hoax. Recently, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger was also pronounced dead on Twitter. Other celebrities, including Jeff Goldblum, Adam Sandler, and Scrubs star Zach Braff, have also been victims of death rumors.
Unfortunately, while Twitter has done a good job of keeping people informed about crucial events overseas (such as the Japan earthquake and tsunami, or the uprisings throughout the Middle East), the website still has a problem with rumors. Rather, Twitter users have a problem with rumors. Rather than questioning the news, they simply hit RT and give the story more validity.
If you’re on Twitter and you see a message that one of your favorite celebrities has died, do yourself a favor and search for some independent corroboration. It took me one Google search to learn that Jackie Chan is not dead, yet “RIP Jackie Chan” is still a trending topic on Twitter.
0 comments ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment