Over the two decades of X's existence, from its early days as Twitter until today, there have been parody accounts that share fake news stories for a good laugh and maybe even some ad revenue. But why would a legitimate company want to get in on that kind of action?
That's the question fans are collectively asking today after the official account for the BetMGM sports betting company announced "Breaking" news that the University of North Carolina was hiring 13-time NBA champion Phil Jackson as their new head coach.
In a post that has since been deleted, BetMGM wrote "BREAKING: UNC is finalizing a deal to hire NBA legend Phil Jackson as their Head Coach. This move comes one year after the Tar Heels decision to hire NFL legend Bill Belichick, who went 4-8 in his first season."
Utter Trash
The story was completely made up with no sources, links or anything to try and connect it to reality. It was swiftly debunked, but not before fans saw it and tore BetMGM to shreds online for deliberately spreading misinformation.
"What's the purpose of this post? It's not funny. It's just a fake Woj post, but from a sports betting company," one user remarked on X.
"Gambling companies are tweeting lies as if it's legitimate news because it brings more attention to them. Facts matter. Slippery slope when gambling companies that leagues and media outlets are partnered with are lying to fans. It undermines all of sports," another wrote.
"We’ve gone from parody pages slanting the truth 'for fun' to legitimate companies now telling outright lies because it gets eyeballs on their brand. Don’t tell me I’m overreacting. The slope isn’t just slippery anymore. It’s getting steeper and steeper the more time passes," wrote a third.
© Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com
There was a time where it was cute for parody accounts to try and write a fake story that reporters would put on the air from time to time. But now that it's happening all day, every day and by companies that should be a little bit reputable, it's lost the charm and is just an annoyance.
When every other thing is a parody, nothing gets a chance to actually be funny anymore.
