The Atlantic magazine has found itself in Elon Musk’s crosshairs after it fact-checked a fake image he shared that depicted an article with a headline that never actually ran in the publication.
On Tuesday evening, Musk reshared a fake image on X that showed an article from the magazine reading “Trump Is Literally Hitler.” The article was never written for or published by The Atlantic, but Musk appeared to take the image as truth, commenting, “They are literally foaming at the mouth 😂.”
The day after Musk posted the message, which had amassed over 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, they misinform and manipulate people who encounter them, often using our own writers’ actual bylines.”
It is the latest in a string of recent incidents in which Musk has shared false information leading up to the election and inspired public pushback and fact-checking. According to The Atlantic, it is one of several notable instances in the last several years in which faked images of articles from the magazine have gone viral.
The original post was made by the user @Indian_Bronson, who wrote, “Completely insane story in The Atlantic today.”
It included an altered headline, subheadline and first paragraph. Forbes reported that the photo in the post was from an opinion article published in The Washington Post titled “Yes, it’s okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t let me stop you.”
The user’s post appeared to be a commentary on a real article in The Atlantic that ran Tuesday titled “Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had,” written by its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. The real article reported, citing two unnamed sources, that former President Donald Trump said he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had,” which Trump campaign spokesperson 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 private at Fort Hood, Texas, who was killed by another soldier in 2020 and was heavily mentioned in Goldberg’s piece — criticized the article on X and announced that she would be voting for Trump. NBC News has not confirmed The Atlantic’s reporting.
Both Musk’s and the user’s posts with the fake article were later marked with “Community Note” that clarified that the image was “not a real article.” 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, X’s owner, lashed out at it, quoting Guillén’s post in a post on Wednesday and writing, “The Atlantic is an evil publication.”
A spokesperson for The Atlantic said that fake headlines mimicking the magazine began to become a significant issue for it in 2022 but that it has noticed a “recent uptick in recent weeks.”
The spokesperson added that employees at The Atlantic, as well as the publication’s official account, flag the posts for X to add “Community Notes” to but said that “the ability to have resolution has been completely nullified” because of “Musk’s ownership of X and subsequent dismantling of the brand and safety teams we worked with to rectify these issues.”
They also report posts on various platforms “as fake and as trademark infringements,” as users are using the publication’s trademark to “confuse and misinform readers.”
Last week, another article by The Atlantic including 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 including the fabricated headline, writing, “That doesn’t sound very ‘Democratic’ #ConstitutionalRepublic.” The post was marked with a “Community Note” and later deleted.
The Atlantic also released a statement about the fabricated headline for the Oct. 6 article, whose original headline was “Kamala Harris Might Have to Stop the Steal.” In the news release, The Atlantic wrote that “images of fabricated Atlantic headlines have been circulating on social media with increasing frequency.” Earlier this year, an article that mimicked The Atlantic was shared online with the false headline “Why Migrants Eating Cats Might Be a Good Thing.” Another article with the false headline “The Heroism of Biden’s Bike Fall” also circulated online in June 2022.
Forbes reported that in August, Musk reshared a post including a manipulated headline that resembled the British newspaper The Telegraph. The post, which Musk later deleted, included a headline that claimed that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was considering creating “emergency detainment camps.” The publication later clarified that “no such article has ever been published.”
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