Elle magazine is issuing an apology for a tweet about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West that was intended to be a humorous way to encourage voter registration, but instead blew up into controversy when people didn’t get the joke.
As BBC News reports, the fashion mag tweeted a photo of the couple, accompanied by a shocking caption: “Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are splitting up.”
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Clicking on the link, however, proved to be something of a bait-and-switch; instead of the implied news story about the couple’s breakup, fans who clicked the link found themselves on a voter-registration page.
The tweet (which has since been deleted) brought on immediate backlash, with numerous Twitter users blasting Elle for contributing to the “fake news” phenomenon permeating the Internet.
After the backlash, Elle issued a quick apology for the deception.
“We made a bad joke,” the mag tweeted. “Our passion for voter registration clouded our judgement and we are sincerely sorry.”
