User:Manning Bartlett/Wikipedia:Deathhoax policy draft

It is an observed phenomenon that when a major news event or celebrity death occurs, a flurry of unrelated death hoaxes will be propagated on the internet. There are specific websites devoted to the creation of such hoaxes.

Wikipedia does not report these hoaxes, except in some rare and specific circumstances.

Acceptable reasons for reporting a death hoax in a Wikipedia article:
 * The hoax constitutes a notable event or social phenomenon, eg. Paul is dead.
 * The hoax has had a demonstrably major impact on the life or career of the associated person, which has been widely reported in secondary sources. (No current examples).

Unacceptable reasons for reporting a death hoax in a Wikipedia article:
 * A hoax is reported in the media.
 * A celebrity makes a public statement to refute a hoax.

Adding "alerts" to articles: It is not necessary to include "Celebrity X is not dead, despite reports to the contrary" information in an article. This is implicit in Wikipedia's non-reporting of the celebrity's death.

This policy is derived from the existing policies of
 * Verifiability - Wikipedia only reports verifiable information.
 * Biographies of living people - Wikipedia has additional ethical and legal responsibilities to be accurate in articles concerning living people.
 * Wikipedia is not a newspaper - Death hoaxes are typically short-lived media events with no lasting consequences.