Media News

Fortune deletes story about X after hoax

January 13, 2025

Posted by Chris Roush

Fortune magazine deleted a story about upcoming changes at social media site X after it discovered it was a hoax, reports Kipp Jones of Mediaite.

Jones reports, “In an article that went out on Fortune’s social media channels and to MSN and Google news, the publication claimed that Musk was planning major and obviously odd changes, including removing the date of publication from content posted to the platform.

“In their correction, which is now the only thing at the URL for the story, the outlet says one of its reporters was duped by an X engineer whom Musk fired, and who claimed the billionaire wanted to charge an $8 fee for users signing up to use the platform. Additionally, Fortune’s source claimed Musk wanted to remove the timestamps – which Fortune’s Kali Hays said could ‘exacerbate misinformation’ on X.

“An account on X that elicited a reply from Musk has taken responsibility for the hoax and published a thread (below) detailing how they say it was perpetrated.”

Read more here.

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