Slate.com (The Root's partner site) has identified the man behind the death hoax that sent the Web into a frenzy yesterday. Slate is reporting that @originalcjizzle, a guy with nearly 1,500 followers who is fond of calling people "jive turkeys," started the rumor just before 5 p.m. ET yesterday. @originalcjizzle tweeted:
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RT @CNN: Breaking News: actor Morgan Freeman has passed away in his Burbank home<< wow legendary actor #RIPmorganfreeman
Actually, Morgan Freeman had not passed away, and CNN never ran such a story. The retweet was a fake. @originalcjizzle has since deleted his faked Morgan Freeman death tweet. Surprise, surprise. After the fallout, @originalcjizzle tweeted, "It was an inside joke between friends," he said. "I had no intention of things turning out this way." Yeah, right. What else did he expect? Now everyone knows his Twitter handle and that he's a liar.
Read more at Slate.
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