Links are spreading online announcing that passing of Sir Roger Moore, the actor who portrayed James Bond in the 1970s, despite the actor passing away two years ago.
A common Internet phenomenon that we often encounter online is when shocked and bereaved social media users sadly announce the passing of a beloved celebrity by sharing media links about their death, apparently unaware that the celebrity died some time ago.
Perhaps most notably, this happened when British TV artist Tony Hart passed away. He died in 2009, but news broke again about it in 2015, and even TV host Piers Morgan tweeted a link to a story about his passing.
For reasons largely unexplained, the passing of certain celebrities can be forgotten or overlooked, leading to many social media users recirculating old news about their deaths under the false impression that it is recent news.
The same as happened with Bond actor Roger Moore, as many are tweeting stores about his death, most frequently a BBC article, despite the fact that Moore died two years ago, in May 2017. This isn’t the first time Moore’s passing has been belatedly shared – in 2018 Facebook even added stories about his death to their “Popular Across Facebook” feature.
Moore died on May 23rd 2017 after a battle with cancer.