The fast pace of social media brings brutal impacts whenever lies employ funny content to mislead individuals. The digital world focused on global singer Sam Smith when a serious misinformation hoax swept all platforms.
A strange video appeared on X as someone dressed in a Ninja Turtle costume attempted a stage dive. The tumble was clumsy and cringeworthy, and the crowd scattered in terror.
Within hours of the video going live, Twitter users started spreading false news that metamorphosed the individual in the video into Sam Smith.
The video contained false captions by some accounts, such as “Sam Smith stage diving at his Seattle show,” which created confusion and outrage on numerous websites.
Most social media users believed that the video had Sam Smith, even as they reacted with comments like,
“Wait what!” Several users reacted to the video with comments that read both “That was Sam Smith!?” and “Please tell me this isn’t actually Sam Smith.”
Most users went on body-shaming rants against the man in the video, identifying him as Sam Smith, which angered all his loyal fans.
The reality of this false identity became clear soon after its first dissemination.
Fans swiftly clarified that Sam Smith had not appeared in the video at all.
“That’s not Sam Smith,” one user firmly stated, while another added, “Despite various accounts spreading false information, Sam Smith did not stage dive at any concert.”
Before conducting authenticity tests, they faced the existing attitudes towards those who uploaded the video.
“The obsession right-wingers have with Sam Smith has combined with their affinity for fake news and false information,” one fan posted.
“This is so clearly not Sam. According to these users their entire existence has been fact-free since day one.
The crisis deepened even more when Associated Press confirmed that the clip never recorded any moment from Smith’s performances.
Vanilla Ice’s Ninja Rap music video was used as the material for his live concert performance. Lisa DiAngelo, Sam Smith’s representative, issued an official statement stating that the artist in the video is not the artist.
Public authorities still do not know the identity of the person who donned the costume, and they do not know whether he was given any medical treatment after his fall. Many users online were concerned about the test subject and wrote,
“I really hope he’s okay.”
Misinformation goes viral on the internet, especially when aimed at well-known personalities like Sam Smith, who have been the victim of incessant online bullying over their fashion choices and identity problems.
Sam Smith’s fans immediately refuted the unverified rumours against him, choosing to utilise evidence based on facts to defend the singer instead.
Online trends can easily mislead people, but these followers demonstrated their ability to spot falsehoods through their fast responses to debunk that false Sam Smith death rumour.
