On August 28, the internet erupted over the report of the death of Josh Seiter, a one-time contestant on ABC’s "The Bachelorette."
News agencies snapped up the story and ran it, but there was just one problem.
Seiter posted on his account the next day that the entire death story was a hoax perpetrated by hackers who gained access to his account, reported Breitbart.
The Hack
Seiter’s struggles were well documented on his social media accounts, which is why he believes he was targeted.
In correcting the fake story, he posted a video on his Instagram account, stating, “I am alive and well. My account was hacked.
“For the last 24 hours, I have been trying desperately to get into it. Somebody was playing a cruel joke and mocking my mental illness and the struggles I’ve gone through with depression and suicide attempts.
“And I’m sorry for the pain they caused when they made that post. I just got back into my account.
“I am going to do all I can with my team to try to identify who is behind this.
“But again, I apologize for the confusion. And I will update you guys as more facts come in.”
Seiter made a post in July 2021 that he had been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar depression, and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).
My question is this… the death of someone is not all that hard to confirm.
So, why were mainstream news outlets just running with a story that was only on an Instagram account, especially knowing how many of these accounts are hacked and how much fake news is thrown around out there?
This was just irresponsible reporting by any mainstream outlet with the resources to follow up on this to find out if he was, in fact, dead.
Thankfully, he is still alive and we can only hope he catches the hackers and makes them for what they did.
