The Atlantic responds to Elon Musk sharing a fake magazine image

The Atlantic magazine has found itself in the crosshairs of Elon Musk after checking a fake image he shared showing an article with a headline that never appeared in the publication.

On Tuesday evening, Musk re-shared a fake image on X that showed a magazine article that said “Trump is literally Hitler.” The article was never written or published by The Atlantic, but Musk seemed to take the image as truth, commenting, “They’re literally foaming at the mouth 😂.”

The day after Musk posted the message, which had racked up more than 20 million views, The Atlantic said in a statement that it did not publish an article with that headline.

The statement did not mention Musk by name. In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for The Atlantic condemned sharing fake images like the one Musk reposted, saying, “The images are harmful and irresponsible, misinforming and manipulating the people who find them, often using the words of our own writers.”

It’s the latest in a series of recent incidents in which Musk has shared false information ahead of the election and inspired public crackdowns and fact-checking. According to The Atlantic, it’s one of several notable cases in recent years where fake images of magazine articles have gone viral.

The original post was made by user @Indian_Bronson, who wrote: “An absolutely insane story in The Atlantic today.”

It includes an altered title, subtitle and first paragraph. Forbes reported that the photo in the post was from an op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “Yes, It’s OK to Compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t Let It Stop You.”

The user’s post appeared to be a comment on an actual article in The Atlantic that was published Tuesday titled “Trump: ‘I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,'” written by its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. The actual article reported, citing two unnamed sources, that former President Donald Trump said he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had,” which Trump campaign spokesman Alex Pfeiffer called ” absolutely false” in a statement to the publication.

Goldberg’s article attracted additional scrutiny online after Mayra Guillén, the sister of Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old Army veteran at Fort Hood, Texas, who was killed by another soldier in 2020 and who she was heavily mentioned in Goldberg’s piece, criticized the article in X, and announced that she would vote for Trump. NBC News has not confirmed The Atlantic’s report.

Both Musk’s and the user’s posts with the fake item were later marked with a “Community Note” clarifying that the image was “not an actual item.” The community note also attributed the edited image to the user and said it was “a satirical edit/photoshop of another article.” Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

After The Atlantic published its fact-check, Musk, the owner of X, lashed out, citing Guillén’s post in a post on Wednesday and writing, “The Atlantic is a bad publication.”

A spokesperson for The Atlantic said that fake headlines imitating the magazine started to become a big issue for it in 2022, but that it has noticed a “significant increase in recent weeks”.

The spokesperson added that The Atlantic employees, as well as the publication’s official account, flag posts for X to add “Community Notes,” but that “since Musk’s ownership of X and the subsequent dismantling of the brand and the security teams we work with to rectify these issues, this resolution capability has been completely overridden.”

They also report posts on various platforms as “fake and trademark violations” as users are using the post’s trademark to “confuse and misinform readers.”

Last week, another article from The Atlantic featuring a manipulated headline was shared on social media. The false headline read: “To save democracy, Harris may need to steal an election.” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, shared a post on X with the made-up title, writing, “This doesn’t sound very ‘Democratic’ #ConstitutionalRepublic.” The post was flagged with a “Community Note” and later deleted.

The Atlantic also released a statement on the fabricated headline for the October 6 article, whose original headline was “Kamala Harris Might Have to Stop the Steal.” In the press release, The Atlantic wrote that “images of fabricated Atlantic headlines have been circulating on social media with increasing frequency.” Earlier this year, an article mimicking The Atlantic was shared online with the bogus headline “Why Migrants Eat Cats May Be a Good Thing.” Another article with the false headline “Biden’s Bike Fall Heroism” also circulated online in June 2022.

Forbes reported that in August, Musk re-shared a post with a manipulated headline that resembled the British newspaper The Telegraph. The post, which Musk later deleted, included a headline that claimed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was considering setting up “emergency detention camps.” The publication later clarified that “no article has ever been published.”