For a few minutes Thursday afternoon, it seemed like Morgan Freeman had suddenly died, with CNN supposedly breaking the news.
Some idiot decided to tweet that Morgan Freeman was dead... but it was all a hoax..
Turns out it was just a regular guy on Twitter playing a joke that caught fire.
"How did the rumor begin?" Slate.com asks. "Blame it on @originalcjizzle, a guy with nearly 1,500 followers who is fond of calling people 'jive turkeys.' Just before 5PM ET, @originalcjizzle tweeted: RT @CNN: Breaking News: actor Morgan Freeman has passed away in his Burbank home<< wow legendary actor #RIPmorganfreeman."
C. Jizzle's post feigned CNN's authority; anyone can perform a manual retweet regardless of its veracity. "This is a common way to begin a hoax on the social network," Slate writes. "Nobody fact-checks anything on Twitter, so faking a CNN retweet is a good way to get your fake death notice to go viral."
Twitter user Peter Shankman, who WENN calls "Freeman's pal," quickly cleared up the rumor:
Smh We wish you the best of health and a long life Morgan!
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