At least three websites purporting to be legitimate media published a false story last week claiming that actor Eddie Garcia has passed away.
Gmaworldupdate.litakemtachatlog.info, newsplustogo.info and gma.balitang24-7.info — ostensibly pretending to be websites of GMA Network Inc. and its news show News To Go — published the false, undated reports with the incomplete headline,
“Breaking News: Eddie Garcia Pumanaw na dahil na Comatose sa Shooting ng Teleseryeng (Breaking news: Eddie Garcia passes away after falling into a coma while shooting TV series)…”
The veteran actor is not dead.
The untrue reports surfaced on June 8, the same day Garcia was rushed to the hospital after tripping and falling during a television shoot. It was reported today, June 11, that the actor remains confined at the Makati Medical Center and is in critical condition. Actress friend Bibeth Orteza, who visited the actor on June 9, said Garcia was in a “deep sleep.”
The three websites’ false reports are similar to several death hoaxes on Garcia published last year, which merely carried the same attention-grabbing headline and a video that stops playing after a few seconds.
For their false reports, gmaworldupdate.litakemtachatlog.info, newsplustogo.info and gma.balitang24-7.info used a maliciously edited six-second clip from a May 2018 DZRH report about the volume of death hoaxes published about Garcia that month.
The recent spurious stories first circulated on social media on June 8, and could have reached over 73,000 people. Top traffic generators from social media are the pages Balitang Bossing and Former PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa.
Gmaworldupdate.litakemtachatlog.inf was created in July 24, 2018; newsplustogo.info on July 6, 2018 and gma.balitang24-7.info on Sept. 1, 2018.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
