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In an embarrassing turn for Fortune magazine, an anonymous user has revealed how they duped the publication into publishing false claims about Elon Musk and social media platform
X
. The incident has sparked a broader conversation about
media credibility
and
fact-checking
practices.
The controversy began when Fortune published an article on January 9 titled “Elon Musk is pushing to remove dates from X posts and planning new $8 sign-up fee.” The piece cited “sources” to allege that Musk intended to remove date stamps from posts on X and introduce a fee for account creation.
However, shortly after its publication, the article was exposed as a hoax. The anonymous user who provided the information to Fortune took to X, admitting they had fabricated the story to highlight the media’s gullibility.
“Fortune published an article based on
false information
I sent them from an anonymous email address,” the user wrote in a thread. “They didn’t even bother to verify the details.”
The user revealed that they had posed as a disgruntled X employee who claimed to have been fired by Musk for opposing the supposed removal of date stamps. They also shared screenshots of their email exchanges with Fortune correspondent Kaley Hays on X. Calling it “the ultimate trick,” they explained how they engaged Hays by spinning this fabricated story.
“They trusted me and published false information. I’m just a random guy on the internet, yet they kept claiming that the information came from their ‘sources,’” the user added.
The fallout forced Fortune to retract the article and issue an apology. In a statement, the publication admitted that their sourcing “did not meet our editorial standards” and apologised to Musk, X employees, and readers.
Fortune retracted the article following the revelation and issued an apology titled 'correction' on their website: “On January 9, Fortune published an article titled ‘Elon Musk is pushing to remove dates from X posts and planning new $8 sign-up fee.’ After publication, Fortune learned that a source that was central to this story had intentionally misled our reporter over a series of exchanges. The sourcing and story do not meet our editorial standards, and the story has been deleted. We apologize to readers and to Mr. Musk and employees of X.”
Musk, a vocal critic of mainstream media and advocate for citizen journalism, responded to the incident on X, saying, “That’s legacy media for you.”
The anonymous user clarified that their intention was not to damage X’s reputation but to expose the vulnerabilities in how mainstream outlets vet their stories. “It shows how naive and easily fooled they can be,” they concluded.
