Britney Spears became a victim of a celebrity death hoax after Sony Music Global tweeted about the singer's death on Monday, December 26. However, the music company later clarified that she is alive.
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On Monday, Sony Music Global tweeted that Britney died in an accident. "RIP @britneyspears #RIPBritney 1981-2016," the account tweeted. "britney spears is dead by accident! we will tell you more soon #RIPBritney," the account further tweeted.
The music company later tweeted, saying that the singer is alive and the earlier tweets were posted after the account was hacked. The music company deleted the original tweet about the singer's death.
"We detected unusual activity on the account and we checked the account if it's hacked or not," Sony Music Global wrote. "We saw a new IP logged in to the account a few minutes ago and the tweet is posted by a new IP so @britneyspears is still alive #OurMine," it added.
Britney is alive and doing well, her rep confirmed. "Britney Spears is alive and well, her rep tells CNN. It appears @SonyMusicGlobal erroneously tweeted her death. Sony rep says no comment," a CNN reporter tweeted.
Not only Sony Music Global, even singer Bob Dylan's Twitter account appeared to have been hacked. The singer also posted about Britney's death, but later deleted the tweet.
"Rest in peace @britneyspears," one of Dylan's tweet reads, "OurMine checked Britney Spears twitter account if it's hacked or not and they detected its hacked! @britneyspears is still alive!!" another tweet reads.
The death hoax report appeared to originate from hacker group OurMine. OurMine has previously targeted several high-profile accounts, including accounts of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.
Meanwhile, Britney has joined the list with other A-list celebrities who became a victim of the celebrity death hoax. This year, fake death reports of celebrities, including Beyonce, Betty White, Brad Pitt, Michael Jordan, Tommy Chong and Jaden Smith surfaced online.
