A viral death hoax claims that the former host of ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ is dead. The 63-year-old is the latest victim of a celebrity hoax trend that goes viral on Facebook and Twitter.
A Facebook page dedicated to the hoax released a phony statement, which claims that Bill Nye died earlier this week. The page titled ‘R.I.P. Bill Nye’ garnered many likes to make the hoax seems legitimate.
The comedian and frequent Real Time with Bill Maher guest is alive and well. Bill Nye is active on his Twitter account but has not responded to the death hoax.
Other celebrities who were victims of death hoaxes this year include Sylvester Stallone, Machine Gun Kelly and Danny Trejo.
The American scientist is currently starring in the Netflix show Bill Nye Saves the World.
Many fans reacted to the death hoax on social media by leaving condolences on Twitter and Facebook.
Bro people think your dead
— Matthew Adams (@MatthewAdamsE) December 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/fiImrat/status/1071238931553943553
Rip Bill Nye u were such a dude i miss you already
— Carson (@carson_kaiser) December 8, 2018
YALL BILL NYE IS ALIVE THANK GOD
— sarah (@pvladins) December 8, 2018
Some of the celebrity death hoaxes use the logos of legitimate news sources to drive traffic to the spam website. The use of social media to spread fake news is effective as ‘Bill Nye death’ is the No.1 Google trend for the science television presenter.
Bill Nye was also targeted for a death hoax in 2012.
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