Conspiracy theorists are twisting facts online about country singer Joe Diffie’s death from COVID-19 complications in an effort to promote their claims that health officials are exaggerating the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.
Diffie, who topped the charts in the 1990s with honky-tonk singles including “Home” and “Pickup Man,” died in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 29 after he tested positive for the virus.
He was 61. In the days following his death, Facebook and Twitter users posing as internet sleuths falsely claimed media reports hid that he had lung cancer.
He did not. The untrue claims appear to have stemmed from an obituary posted online for Diffie’s father, Joe Diffie Sr., who passed away in November 2018 from cancer.