CNN on Monday chided billionaire tech mogul and Twitter owner Elon Musk for tweet that contained a months-old image of a fabricated headline on the network.
Musk’s tweet contained a screenshot of an image that falsely showed that CNN had run a chyron on the air saying that “Elon Musk could threaten free speech on Twitter by literally allowing people to speak freely.”
Readers online quickly pointed out that the image, first created in April, was fake and that no such headline had run on the network, and a link to an AP Fact Check was attached to the billionaire’s tweet.
“CNN aired no such report about Musk ‘threatening free speech,’ and the chyron was digitally altered to add the text,” the April fact check read. “The image purporting to be from a CNN broadcast originated on a satirical website.”
The network responded to Musk’s Monday tweet, reiterating that the image was fake.
“This headline never appeared on CNN,” CNN’s PR department wrote to Musk. “Be better.”
“Lmaoooo,” Musk replied.
Musk, who purchased Twitter earlier this fall and proposed sweeping changes to its content moderation practices, has come under fire in the past for tweeting offensive or false statements and misinformation.
The changes at Twitter since Musk took over have raised concerns from journalists and media companies about the future of the platform and news gathering more generally.