(Perhaps the most bizarre misinformation incident was this video hoax, reported on by The Lede's Robert Mackey, in which an Israeli actor claims to be a gay activist who was banned from the flotilla).
The dramatic story attracted hundreds of readers, including Taryn Wright, who uncovered the hoax and revealed the truth on her blog, "Warrior Eli: A Hoax?," reports Gawker.
Earlier this month, 21 Holocaust survivors affiliated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a plea to Facebook asking them to deny access to anyone promoting the idea that the Holocaust was a hoax reports the Jewish Chronicle Online.
But even so it was enough to push aside most consideration of the true hoax reported last week with far less fervor: the obscene rewards that Wall Street bankers bestowed upon themselves for ripping off our economy.
In the roughly 15 minutes in which the hoax report spread like wildfire on Twitter, posters tweeted their sadness, calling Redford an icon, a "looker in his day" and a "proper star".
The interior minister called on the public to respect the police's investigation by not spreading hoax reports about the case.
Hoax reports when the image first emerged suggested he was a Briton called Jonathan Edwards, but according to The Age he is called Jake and he studied at Craigieburn Secondary College in northern Melbourne.
After a hoax report that Wayne Knight had died in a traffic accident near the New York Pennsylvania border, the actor who played Newman on "Seinfeld" and a treacherous techie in "Jurassic Park" took humorously to his Twitter account to dispel the rumors of his sudden demise.
The parents accused of pulling a hoax by reporting that their 6-year-old son was aboard a runaway balloon pleaded guilty to charges that could bring some jail time and probation.
The Twitter account of folk music icon Bob Dylan may also have been subjected to a hoax, Billboard reported, when it sent out a now-deleted tweet reading "Rest in peace @britneyspears".
