Twitter tried to kill off Tony Hawk on Thursday morning. And for a few hours, he was actually the No. 1 trending topic on the social media site as a result of it, with many people wondering whether or not the iconic skateboarder had passed away. It seemed a little bit unbelievable, but given the recent deaths of several high-profile celebrities, it also wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility, which created some confusion.
Good news—Hawk is not dead. By mid-morning on Thursday, his name had fallen out of the trending topics list, which was our first clue. But if that wasn't enough, Hawk himself also took to Twitter to confirm that he is still very much alive:
Hawk also told everyone that it's time for more people to fact-check before they assume that what they read on the internet is true:
That means you probably shouldn't fall for headlines submitted by Twitter accounts that call themselves parodies in their bio:
Fortunately, these people can all rest easy now:
RIP.
