Last weekend Google spread the date that Eminem died even though he's still alive and well

When you think about all of the news and information that travels online each day, the amount is staggering. Occasionally you get someone who wishes to create some sort of reaction by posting fake news on Wikipedia for a laugh. Most of the time, the fake news never makes it past the Wikipedia stage as it is caught by a reader and brought to the attention of the people at Wikipedia who are in charge of correcting these types of things.

But what happens when a totally made-up piece of news seeps from Wikipedia into a part of the internet with a larger audience? We found out the other day when Google’s Knowledge Graph reported on the demise of a famous recording artist who had not actually passed away. The Knowledge Graph is a box filled with information that appears on the top or off to the right side of Google’s search results.

Last weekend, Google’s Knowledge Graph reported that rapper Eminem had died at the age of 51 in Madison, Wisconsin on December 10th. Per Newsweek, the hoax began when a post on Eminem’s Wikipedia page mentioned that the rapper had died. This information, which was totally fabricated by someone with a macabre sense of humor, changed Google’s search results for Eminem (whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III) as the December 10th date of his passing was listed in the Knowledge Graph.

Google is tricked by a fake report of Eminem’s death and shares the fake news of his demise with the internet

Anyone who happened to look up Eminem using Google Search on December 10th might have seen the Knowledge Graph showing that Eminem had died. And to help spread the news, over a 24-hour period the rapper’s fans wrote things like “Can’t believe he’s gone.” And the posts from fans of the Real Slim Shady included the hashtag #RIPEminem.

That hashtag actually appeared back in 2020 when another hoax spread online that Eminem was dead after a user on what was then called Twitter posted a tweet that said, “I killed Eminem.” In that case, the account was suspended but not before the rumor of Eminem’s death had circulated throughout the internet.

Google commented on last week’s incident by noting that the Knowledge Graph uses a variety of sources including Wikipedia. Google says that it has systems in place that are supposed to detect if any of the Knowledge Graph’s sources have been tampered with. However, Google says that this system is not perfect. In the event that the system fails, as it did with the fake death of Eminem, Google expects to be informed by users so that it can manually fix the Knowledge Graph.