Morgan Freeman Passed Away In Mississippi Death Hoax Fools Netizens

by Athena / Oct 16, 2017 06:20 AM EDT

A Morgan Freeman death hoax story had once again fooled thousands of netizens. The fake news report started circulating on Facebook on October 5. As the death hoax proliferated on the internet, the 80-year-old actor was posting actively in his verified social media accounts.

A new site called Action News 3 published a report claiming that Freeman "passed away in his Charleston, Mississippi home early this morning." This was reportedly confirmed by his representatives and an investigation to determine the cause of death was underway. The report was headlined "Legendary Actor Morgan Freeman Dead At Age 80." It also came with a short Morgan Freeman Biography and detailed the achievements he had in the film industry. The report concluded by saying that "This is a painful day for all that were inspired by his amazing talent. He will be greatly missed." The post was shared by more than 800,000 people on Facebook as of press time. A netizen Facebook post of the fake news story can be found below. The report did not identify any time and date as to when doing the fake death took place.

The 80-year-old actor was very much alive and in fact very active in both of his verified Facebook and Twitter accounts. On Facebook, he was actively promoting his new show on National Geographic, the "Story of US." On Twitter, he was vigorously posting criticisms against Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein. There were no posts whatsoever that addressed the recent death hoax story.

This was not the first time that the respected actor was subjected to a fake news report. In 2012, E! News also dissected a Facebook Page and a YouTube video which both claimed that Freeman was already dead. Another story dissected by the website was that he would be narrating the "Fifty Shades of Grey" movie. Both reports were fake, E! News found at the time.