Internet announces death of Gene Wilder despite him passing in 2016

The bizarre online phenomenon we call the digital death echo has struck again, as the Internet sadly announces the passing of Gene Wilder, despite the actor passing away back in 2016.

For reasons that are not fully understood, news will begin to circulate through social media about the passing of a well-known figure. Such news often includes social media users posting links to a reputable news article with more details about the death of that person.

However, unbeknownst to social media users, that public figure died some time ago, and the news articles they link to are – in most cases – many years old.

It’s a phenomenon we’ve encountered in the past. Perhaps most recently TV artist Tony Hart and James Bond actor Roger Moore both had news of their respective deaths shared online as if it were breaking news many years after the men themselves had died. Sometimes the misinformation becomes so popular that it can trick the social media platforms themselves, which often makes the problem even worse. For example in the case of the Gene Wilder, Twitter has been tricked into sharing a 2016 article from NBC news (with today’s date inexplicably attached) whenever someone searches for Wilder’s name (see below.)

It is not really understood how exactly this happens. Of course the phenomenon relies on Internet users not properly researching information they hear online and not checking the publication dates of the articles they post.

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But one question is why it happens for certain celebrities and not others. The answer may lie with the subject of the hoax themselves, with some claiming that the celebrity must walk a fine line between famous and obscure. Famous enough so that most social media users would have heard of them and be willing to share information about their passing. But not too famous as to result in social media users being aware that the celebrity had already passed away.

This could explain why two of the men who have seen news of their death “break” many years after the event itself – Gene Wilder and Roger Moore – both played characters that were arguably more famous than the actors themselves, Willy Wonka and James Bond respectively, which would result in both actors being universally recognised, but less known about the actors themselves.

Either way, actor Gene Wilder died in August 2016