AI images, invented details, thousands of shares: the rumor of Barry Gibb’s death went viral. Now his family speaks plainly – the Bee Gees star is doing well.
His fans breathe a sigh of relief: Barry Gibb is not dead. A headline that sounds absurd at first, but has good reasons. There have been numerous rumors circulating online about the death of the Bee Gees star. The 79-year-old was pronounced dead on Facebook with a “RIP Barry Gibb” post. The first report of Gibb’s passing was shared there and contained numerous completely fabricated details. Many fans believed the death notice and spread the rumor. Numerous accounts took advantage of the attention for clicks: Further articles about Gibbs’ death were published, including AI-generated images of the singer in hospital beds or coffins, as “Entertainment Weekly” reports. The original page can no longer be found.
Now Gibbs’ family intervenes: the singer is alive and well, happy in his home in Miami. Gibbs is the last living member of the Bee Gees, after Maurice Gibb died in 2003 and Robin Gibb died in 2012. The three brothers celebrated global success with songs like “Stayin’ Alive” and “More Than a Woman”. The Bee Gees have not toured together since 1999.
Barry Gibb joins the list of the “undead”. False reports about the deaths of stars appear again and again on the Internet – which are intended to generate a lot of clicks and usually go viral. Justin Bieber and Bon Jovi had already been declared dead, although they were in excellent health. With the spread of easily accessible AI tools, it is becoming increasingly easier to generate images for this purpose. This is how a blatant lie spreads all over the Internet within a few hours. Hopefully the stars can take this with humor: after all, it’s not every day that you see your own obituary.
