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?"Justin Bieber has cancer!!!!!!!," 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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