4 simple steps to ensure you'll never, ever be tricked by an internet hoax again

You're too smart to share this nonsense

Macaulay Culkin
(Image credit: (SCOTT WEINER/Retna Ltd./Corbis))

On Saturday, millions of internet users spent the day mourning the death of Macaulay Culkin. He wasn't actually dead, but that was a minor detail in the story, which spread across the internet like all too many other stupid hoaxes that spread across the internet every day.

The fake story reporting Culkin's death was tweeted 23,000 times, and shared more than five million times on Facebook. By the time Culkin responded, the story had already picked up too much steam for anyone to stop it — including Culkin.

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.