Justin Bieber not dead; gets his first death hoax

Awww, Justin Bieber's so grown up -- he's got a burgeoning music career, a hot girlfriend (Selena Gomez) and now his very first Internet death hoax!

On Sunday (March 11), "RIP Justin Bieber" popped into Twitter trends. But, reports E! online, there wasn't even a bogus news story about him toppling off an Alpine cliff to bolster the story -- just the hashtag itself, which quickly wore itself out and went away.

But it was replaced by the oh-so-clever "RIP Haters of Justin Bieber" which itself popped into trends as the Beliebers beat back the rumor.

"RIP Haters of Justin Bieber? Funny how you've got it all wrong. I don't hate Justin Bieber. I hate his annoying fan base," tweeted one self-confessed hater.

The Bieb himself hasn't addressed the hoax. Mysteriously, the usually prolific Twitter user hasn't tweeted anything since March 9.