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Sony Music, a unit of Sony Corp. <6758.T>, said in a short
statement that its social media account was "compromised" but
that the situation "has been rectified."
The company said it "apologizes to Britney Spears and her fans
for any confusion."
A Sony spokeswoman refused to comment further. A Twitter
spokesman did not return emails seeking comment.
The 35-year-old international superstar and Grammy Award winner
is "is fine and well," Spears' manager Adam Leber told CNN.
In the first of several false tweets on Monday, the company's
Sony Music Global Twitter account published a short message
reading "RIP @britneyspears" and "#RIPBritney 1981-2016," along
with a teary-eyed emoji, Variety and Billboard magazines
reported.
The fake tweets were soon removed. In some tweets, the group
OurMine took responsibility, Billboard reported.
The Twitter account of folk music icon Bob Dylan may also have
been subjected to a hoax, Billboard reported, when it sent out a
now-deleted tweet reading "Rest in peace @britneyspears."
The Sony spokeswoman confirmed that Bob Dylan is also a Sony
artist and that the company's statement "holds true for what's
happened."
Another unit of Sony, Sony Pictures Entertainment, was the
victim of a devastating cyber attack in November 2014, which the
Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded was the work of North
Korea. That hack came a month before Sony Pictures was due to
release the film "The Interview," about two journalists
recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong
Un.
(Reporting by Hilary Russ in New York; Additional reporting by
Kanika Sikka in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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