Rumors of Jackie Chan's death a hot topic

Twitter users across the globe were abuzz over rumors that Hong Kong-based action star Jackie Chan recently died of a heart attack.



"RIP Jackie Chan" made it to Twitter's top trending topics worldwide, placing fifth at 11:25 a.m. on Wednesday.



The official social networking accounts of the Hong Kong-based action superstar, however, quickly denied this, saying that Chan is "alive and well."



"Jackie is alive and well. He did not suffer a heart attack and die, as was reported on many social networking sites and in online news reports," his verified Facebook and Twitter accounts read.



"Jackie is fine and is busy preparing for the filming of his next movie."



Fans and supporters of the Asian superstar expressed happiness and relief that Chan's death rumor is a hoax.



"RIP Jackie Chan is not true! Jackie Chan is still alive and he will make a new movie yoyoyo!," one of them said.



Another said, "Oh, thank God. We don't need more dead Asians."



"Jackie Chan did not die. RIP means: Really Inspiring #Person," one Twitter user said.



Others, meanwhile, slammed others for spreading the false information.



"Whoever said 'RIP Jackie Chan' needs to get a life. It's not cool or funny to say people are dead," one said.



This Twitter user quipped, "Whoever started the RIP Jackie Chan needs to get slapped!"



Chan is among the many celebrities who have been victims of online death hoaxes, the latest being American actor Charlie Sheen of Two and a Half Men.



The Asian superstar earlier drew flak from some of his compatriots over his initial tweets about the August 23 hostage drama at the Quirino Grandstand in the Philippines on August 2010, which involved tourists from Hong Kong.



In the said tweets, Chan asked the people of Hong Kong not to direct their anger at the Philippine government or to Filipinos who live in their country.



Several days later, he apologized for "causing misunderstanding or discontent," saying that he is not in the position to say who should be held liable for the tragedy.

April Fools Day Pranks Start Early – Jackie Chan Death Hoax

Was the Jackie Chan Death Hoax an Early April Fool's Day Prank?

It
seems like April Fool’s Day pranks have started early this year.
Earlier today Daily Planet Dispatch reported that rumors of Jackie
Chan’s death were going viral. This is not the first time, of course,
that the 56 year old legendary martial arts actor and producer’s early
demise had been reported as a hoax.

The power of social media
networks like Facebook and Twitter in helping a story go viral were
demonstarted in a rather silly string of thousands of real-time results
showing up in Google, Google Trends and Twitter trends as fans of the
comedian started posting “RIP Jackie Chan” without one corroborating
story backing up the original, a ‘pastehtml’ site, put up to look like
a Yahoo7 News page.

The ‘pastehtml’ site even tried to make the
story look real by reporting that Will Smith and President Barack Obama
had paid tribute to the celebrity’s life.

Now Jackie Chan’s representatives have had to step in to quash the
rumors – with their own message on Twitter and a note on the Hong Kong
actor’s Facebook page stating: “Jackie is fine and busy preparing for
filming his next movie”.

Fortunately, many Twitter fans were wise
to the idea that this might be some kind of early April Fool’s Day
Prank and started to limit the effects of the hoax by posting Tweets
that asked people to think about the facts of the matter. There have
been a smattering of Hoax RIP claims concerning celebrities sent viral
on the site in the recent past including the purported deaths of Justin
Bieber and Jeff Goldblum.

It looks like somebody, in very poor
taste, tried to get their April Fool’s Day pranks in early this year,
unfortunately for Jackie Chan. Knowing his character, though, he’ll
just laugh it off and enjoy the added publicity.







Via http://dailyplanetdispatch.com/april-fools-day-pranks-start-early-jackie-chan-death-hoax/857720/