Twitter tributes six years after artist Tony Hart dies

Tributes have been pouring in on Twitter for artist Tony Hart even though he died six years ago.

The late artist has been trending on social media in the UK, with so many users posting links to an old article in the Guardian about his death that the story became the most-read on its site.

The paper has updated the story so that the phrase “this article was published in 2009” now appears in bold at the top of the page.

Mr Hart died in January 2009 aged 83, and was widely known for his work alongside stop-motion character Morph. However, yesterday his name was among the top trends in the UK.

Some suggested that the trend had been started by a Facebook user posting an obituary for Mr Hart to the social network yesterday though the rapid spread of story makes that unlikely, according to some experts.

The official Twitter account for Morph even joined the wave of posts commenting: “Over the past 24 hrs, many people on Twitter have reported that Tony Hart has recently died. Tony sadly died in 2009.”

It is not the first time social media has been mistaken in the wake of a celebrity death; following the death of comedian Robin Williams last year, thousands of Twitter users mistakenly posted tributes to singer Robbie Williams.