Follow this link:
Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty Something that was meant to add more potential voters to get registered is backfiring pretty hard on the publication who chose to post it. ELLE Magazine’s latest headline has everyone talking–and that’s because it’s completely fake. They posted the following to their Twitter page: “ Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are splitting up” which included a link and a picture of the famous couple, all adorned with a shocked emoji and a broken heart emoji. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are splitting up https://t.co/epwKG7aSBg pic.twitter.com/u7qqojWVlR — ELLE Magazine (US) (@ELLEmagazine) October 18, 2018 Let’s be honest, a lot of us who scroll Twitter don’t click on the link to certain stories that come across our feed, because the headline says it all–so a lot of replies to this “story” are distressed fans upset that a KimYe breakup has been confirmed by a credible publication. But that’s just the thing–Kim and Kanye didn’t actually get a divorce at all. When people click on the link ELLE posted, it takes you to a page on their website that helps users register to vote. Though most of us agree voting is extremely important, this just isn’t the way to get people to register for a multitude of reasons. Ever heard of a guy named Donald Trump proclaiming “Fake news?” This is a ctual fake news that’s trying to convince people to vote instead of taking them where they were told they’re going. The link doesn’t take users to a random voter registration, but it’s a portal that leads to ELLE’ s actual website. This leads many people to believe that the publication’s sole purpose wasn’t actually registering voters, but rather, getting clicks on a HUGE story that no other publication has yet. It’s pretty condescending to send out a story and have it actually link to something “more important.” Though most will agree that celebrity news is trivial in the big scheme of things, that doesn’t mean those who want to know whether or not Kim and Kanye broke up should be misled and tricked into some political scheme. New York Times bestselling author Roxanne Gay quickly replied to ELLE Magazine’s attempt at luring voters, calling them out for “trash nonsense.” She points out that people can be “civic minded and interested in celebrity gossip,” telling the mag to do better than sending out fake links with click-bait headlines. This is trash nonsense. Who do you think you are reaching with this? Guess what? One can be civic minded and interested in celebrity gossip. Do better. — roxane gay (@rgay) October 18, 2018 While some users applauded the effort to get more voters registered, most people–especially fellow journalists, writers, and publications–stood firm in the idea that nobody who clicks on a link with the intention of reading an article is going to register to vote after being bamboozled. delete this. — Ryan Mac (@RMac18) October 18, 2018 Okay. That's not ethical or appropriate. I'm all for get out the vote efforts, but this is misleading and fuels the “fake news” fire… — Just Jake (@JustJake_91) October 18, 2018 This is condescending. People can care about more than one thing at once! — Erin Strecker (@ErinStrecker) October 18, 2018 And the heat definitely doesn’t stop there, click through to the next page to check out more angry reactions to what many are describing as a ploy for more clicks.
