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Britney Spears Death Hoax: Pop Star Reacts To Sony Twitter Hack, OurMine Denies Posting Death Tweet

By Lorenzo Tanos
Published on: 21:30 PST, Dec 26, 2016

Yesterday, pop superstar Britney Spears was involved in a death hoax that resulted when Sony’s Twitter account got hacked. And it didn’t take long for the “…Baby One More Time” singer to assure fans that she’s okay, doing so in a rather cryptic manner.

The mix-up began on Monday morning when Sony Music Global’s official Twitter account was hacked, sending out tweets that suggested the 35-year-old Spears had passed away “by accident.” According to The New York Times, this was followed by a tweet ostensibly sent out by legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, which was seemingly done to add credibility to the Britney Spears death hoax.

All this caused great panic among a lot of fans, who were still trying to process the recently-announced death of another celebrity, George Michael. The Wham! singer and solo artist had died at the age of 53 on Christmas day, adding to the shockingly long list of celebrity deaths in 2016.

But as it turned out, the claims of Spears’ “death by accident” were all part of a Sony Twitter hack, as both Sony Music Global and Dylan’s Twitter accounts were both compromised. And, as Britney’s manager Adam Leber told CNN, his client is definitely “fine and well,” and that this isn’t the first time “Internet clowns” have made such a claim.

“I assume (Sony Music’s) account has been hacked. I haven’t spoken to anyone… as of yet but I am certain their account was hacked. Britney is fine and well. There have been a few Internet clowns over the years who have made similar claims about her death, but never from the official Sony Music Twitter account.”

The New York Times reported on Monday that hacking crew OurMine was suspected of the Bob Dylan and Sony Twitter hacks. This was the same group responsible for previous hacks on official Twitter accounts belonging to Marvel, Netflix, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

With the Britney Spears death hoax tweets now deleted from the Sony Music and Bob Dylan Twitter accounts, the singer has just taken to Twitter to debunk the hoax herself, according to Entertainment Weekly. Spears posted a series of selfies on Monday afternoon, accompanied by the words “Don’t underestimate the power of Charlie’s Angels,” with an angel emoji in lieu of the actual word.

The post had confused a lot of fans at first, as members of the Britney Spears fansite Breathe Heavy had debated on the meaning of it. The above-mentioned use of the angel emoji made several users wonder just what “Charlie’s” was, but now that it’s clear that Britney was making a movie/TV show reference, one member gave their succinct thoughts on what she really meant.

“It’s basically a confirmation that she is alive!”

Meanwhile, the crew suspected of posting the Britney Spears death hoax may have had a different role in the Bob Dylan and Sony Twitter hacks, and may not have posted the original, alarm-raising tweet to begin with.

In an interesting new twist to the story, OurMine spoke with CBS News to talk about what had happened on Monday morning. According to the hacking collective, it wasn’t behind the death hoax tweet, but had rather hacked into the Sony Music account after the fact, once it discovered what the tweet had said. OurMine also acknowledged posting from Sony’s account after breaking into it.

Regardless of who had actually posted the Britney Spears death hoax on the Sony Music account, it looks like a case of all’s well that ends well for Spears and for music fans around the world — the issues have been sorted out, and Britney is, without a doubt, alive and well.

[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

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