Go 'Bald for Bieber' urges Internet cancer hoax

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Singer Justin Bieber arrives at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 20, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

By Chase Hoffberger, Daily Dot

Justin Bieber devotees were thrown for a loop this week after a couple bad apples on the Internet started a rumor that the pop prince had cancer.

The hoax, Reddit attests, began Tuesday night when a 4channer used something to the tune of the Fake Tweet Builder to generate a tweet supposedly sent from Entertainment Tonight's verified account.

"I was there when we started this," added one of the self-proclaimed conspirators, redditor ErroneousDylan. "Somebody made a few Twitter accounts, we edited Wikipedia, we spammed chat rooms, and we even posted here on Reddit (but it was deleted for lack of evidence). Somebody made a few fake news posts too which were convincing but without a link it wasn't strong enough."

Twitter via Daily Dot

The hooligans made tribute videos played out to the tune of Biebs' big hit "Baby," and they campaigned for support.

 They created Facebook pages that read  which brougt together upwards of 800 allegiants who debated the implications of a worldwide pop star having cancer.

At one point, one 4channer created a #BaldforBieber hashtag on Twitter and started pushing for fans to shave their heads in solidarity.

Twitter via Daily Dot

 Justin's foremost Beliebers bought in. Bald For Bieber websites were created. More than 900 people tweeted #BaldforBieber over the past week, with some going so far as to include pictures of their own bare scalps, which they claimed to have shaved as a gesture of support.

http://www.dailydot.com/news/justin-bieber-cancer-hoax-4chan/

 But as Gawker points out, the fun was short-lived. On Reddit, one 4channer confessed that "people killed the joke pretty quickly by tweeting 'LOL Best PRANK EVER GO 4CHAN #baldforbieber.'"

So, so much for that.

Bieber himself hasn't made mention of the hoax. The 18-year-old wunderkind has actually championed his support for Breast Cancer Awareness in the interim, but his ever-popular Twitter feed has mostly been consumed with brown-nosing retweets and Instagrams of he and Oprah "swaggin it out."

Chase Hoffberger is a staff writer at the Daily Dot. Follow him on Twitter at @chasehoffberger

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  • Read More @ Source

    The Magic of Mr. Rossi

    The story of the invention which promises to change the world by Angelo Saso In Greece there's a company ready to bet on it 200 Millions euros, in the United States the industrial production is allegedly already started and there's a plan to put the device on the market later this year. The Energy Catalyzer, created by the Italian inventor Andrea Rossi, is still a mysterious prototype but it promises to become soon an international case and even a revolution in our way of life and in our approach to energy generation. E-Cat is a small device apparently able to convert few grams of nickel powder and a small amount of high pressure hydrogen in electric power for many months. The application for a patent is still pending: therefore Mr. Rossi has not revealed the secrets of the process still. Many tests confirmed that the measured power output cannot be the result of any chemical process. Two authoritative Swedish physicists, who took part in one of the tests, said: "the explanation is that there is necessarily a nuclear reaction" and: "If it's true, their inventors would deserve the Nobel Prize". But there is not any scientifically viable theory on what really happens in E-cat's reaction chamber. Is this a hoax? A collective hallucination? Or a radical innovation instead? Rainews reporter Angelo Saso has interviewed the main players and experts in order to reveal the backstage of such an invention "which promises to change the world".

    Video Rating: 4 / 5



    Fraudulent Stories Here

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