The false reports of Lil Tay’s alleged death has been resolved, after social media giant Meta confirmed that the rapper/internet star’s Instagram account was hacked. A spokesperson for the company, which owns both Facebook and Instagram, says they helped recover the teen’s account after a post appeared last week claiming she and her brother had died.
The original social media ‘announcing’ that Lil Tay had died has since been deleted, and referred to the rapper as Claire; Lil Tay later clarified that her legal name is Tay Tian. Lil Tay’s management also reportedly confirmed the statement to Variety on Wednesday. One day after the false reports, Lil Tay released a statement explaining that her account had been compromised by a third party to spread “jarring misinformation” about her and her brother.
Lil Tay said in a statement to TMZ: “I want to make it clear that my brother and I are safe and alive, but I’m completely heartbroken, and struggling to even find the right words to say. It’s been a very traumatizing 24 hours. All day yesterday, I was bombarded with endless heartbreaking and tearful phone calls from loved ones all while trying to sort out this mess.”
Lil Tay went viral in 2018 at age 9 with profanity-laced videos that featured her flaunting thousands of dollars in cash, sitting in luxury cars and wearing high-end clothing. However, she stopped posting online content that same year and has had virtually no social media presence since then.
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