Mattia Polibio Is the Latest TikTok Star to Become the Victim of a Death Hoax
Updated April 21 2020, 11:14 a.m. ET
Instagram users started sharing an image hinting at Mattia Polibia's death on Dec. 17. As it indicates, the TikTok star was hit by a car while out and about in his hometown of New York.
The screenshot depicts a Google search with a Channel 45 news headline detailing the horrid news. As the meta description informs us, the content creator died after he was hit by an inattentive driver.
Was Mattia Polibio found dead for real? What exactly is going on?
Mattia Polibio was found dead reads viral Instagram hoax post.
"Officials say he got out of the car he was in and when he was stepped into the road another car slammed right into him, not knowing he was going to get out," the post says.
Instagram users jumped in on the action and started sharing the news immediately. Although the photo was widely distributed, that doesn't make it a true story.
Mattia is alive. The only thing he became a victim of is a hoax.
Unaware of the recently-emerged trend, the 16-year-old continued to post non-death-related pieces content on his TikTok page throughout the day.
The most suspicious readers might brush this off as insufficient proof.
However, if one was to repeat the same Google search depicted in the viral Instagram post — simplistically enough, the search term is "Mattia Polibio" — it will become imminently evident that there are no Channel 45 news items addressing the topic.
However, the fourth highest-ranking article does revolve around a certain death hoax involving the TikTok star.
Titled "Fact check: Mattia Polibio becomes victim of death hoax," the article spills out the truth loud and clear.
A website named Dead Death also posted a piece to emphasizes that Channel 45 did not commission a news item about Mattia's death.
The death hoax isn't the only weird rumor out there about Mattia.
Another Channel 45 hoax revolves around Mattia's supposed police arrest. The sparsely-worded article is signed by another TikTok user named Mel Morales.
The last sentence of the text strongly encourages readers to follow her account — indicating that a hoax could potentially serve as an efficient means to attain more popularity on social media.
Mattia isn't the first TikTok star to get involved in a death hoax.
Payton Moormeier was falsely rumored to be dead as well, reveals a Distractify article from August. The cause of his alleged death was the same as Mattia's — a car crash.
Payton reacted to the news right after they were released, posting plentiful of clips to demonstrate that he is indeed alive and well.
Mattia has yet to take the same course of action, though we have no doubt that he will stay true to his brand and post a few videos disproving the volatile gossip. We're strongly hoping for a few character impersonations, a few dance moves, and a few extreme closeups of his luscious hair. Please.