Markus Persson, better known as Notch, is the billionaire creator of Minecraft. A death hoax story claimed that the 39-year-old video game programmer is dead from a drug overdose at his home. However, Notch is alive and was active on his Twitter account yesterday.
It is unclear where the fake news story originated from but several links on Twitter and Facebook claim that Markus ‘Notch’ Persson is dead. To make the hoax seem legitimate, the fake story claiming he died from a drug overdose links to a CNN article about Robert Mueller with a shortened URL.
https://twitter.com/YepyepYiha/status/1133849117124382721
https://twitter.com/Scriptz15/status/1134274724391989249
The false reports about the billionaire video game developer led to many fans fearing that he had passed away.
Persson sold Minecraft to Microsoft in 2014, and spoke about the period during an interview with Forbes the following year.
Persson has since courted controversy due to his political opinions.
The Billionaire game designer also expressed in 2015 that his wealth made him feel isolated and depressed, according to the New Zealand Herald. It seems like the hoaxers looked to take advantage of his past statements to make a drug overdose hoax seem believable.
Markus Persson is the latest in a string of celebrity death hoaxes to have made the rounds on social media this year. Although Facebook and Twitter have announced that they are tackling spam and fake news, many hoax stories continue to strive on social media platforms.
Markus ‘Notch’ Persson is alive and well