How Twitter Killed Bill Cosby

11:21am on April 24 was the moment the world learned of the death of Dr. Bill Cosby, the award-winning acclaimed author, lecturer, and comedian. The entertainer filled the homes of American audiences for decades and even my generation knew his significance. Many in my time grew up watching Cosby's Nick Jr show "Little Bill" for years and many felt the void of the pudding spokesman's untimely passing. As with all major stories in today's day and age, people immediately took to the Twitterverse to share their heartfelt condolences for the fallen funny man. 

"You were a true legend and will be missed," wrote one tweet. The hashtag #RIPBillCosby managed to mildly trend among teenagers. Tweets on the topic managed to reach from neighboring communities to even other counties within the state, at first glance.

However there was one problem: Dr. Cosby is alive and well. Twitter Killed Bill Cosby.

According to Cosby's publicist, David Brokaw, he was spending the day en route to Washington, D.C. where he would be giving a series of concerts at the famed Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Although Dr. Cosby had to cancel one of his two concerts due to "unforseen circumstances," Brokaw reassured that the icon's death was certainly not the circumstance for the cancelation. In fact, Brokaw added that Cosby was in "exceptional" health and was in good spirits when he posted a new video to his Facebook page just yesterday.

It didn't take long for the situation to fizzle out as many began to question the wave of tweets that erupted. 

"lol I don't think Bill Cosby is really dead," tweeted one skeptical user. Many tweets echoed the similar sentiment not even thirty minutes after the initial wave of condolences.

So now that it's been established that Bill Cosby is alive and very much well, one can only hypothesize as to how this came about. It certainly wasn't the first time Twitter has managed to kill off an entertainer. The likes of Eddie Murphy, Drake, Cher, Chris Brown, and Adele have all fallen victim of Twittercide within the last year, but why?

Social media experts say that more often, these rumors originate from people looking for a thrill and a laugh from others. Some of these instances include more elaborate and, in some cases, clearly fabricated causes of death ranging from a killer wasp attack or a plane crash over the Atlantic. Although the Cosby Twittercide didn't manage to catch hold beyond the state, this writer can only assume that there will be many more cases like this somewhere that will.

How can you prevent yourself from becoming another brick in the wall of Twittercide? Experts say that on the fly verification can come in the form of aGoogle search or a quick search of news outlets, who are likely to report the death of high profile figures fairly quickly and sometimes before a body is even removed from a premises (case and point: Whitney Houston, MJ).

All there is to do now is to brace ourselves for the next wave of celebrity wasp attacks or botched plastic surgery jobs.

RIP One Direction. That plane crash was simply awful.