CNN claps back at Elon Musk after he shares fake headline on Twitter

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CNN clapped back at Twitter owner Elon Musk hours after he shared an image of a fabricated headline seemingly taking a dig at the network.

“Elon Musk could threaten free speech on Twitter by literally allowing people to speak freely,” read the headline of a months-old story containing the image of CNN anchor Don Lemon.

The billionaire was, however, fact-checked on his own platform as CNN shared a screengrab of the headline along with readers’ context saying: “The screencap in this image is not real and originated from a satirical website.”

“CNN aired no such report about Musk ‘threatening free speech’ and the chyron has been digitally altered to add the text,” it said with a link to an Associated Press fact check attached to it.

According to the report on the news wire agency, satirical outlet Genesius Times, which calls itself “the most reliable source of fake news on the planet,” published the headline.

“This headline never appeared on CNN,” CNN’s PR department wrote to Musk. “Be better.”

Mr Musk, however, downplayed it by saying “Lmaoooo” as he appreciated Twitter’s community notes for flagging the fake news post.

While, the tweet has so far not been deleted, the community note was no longer visible at the time The Independent reported the story.

The Twitter owner was widely mocked for sharing a fake news screengrab.

“ Haha the ‘reader context.’ LOLOLOL ,” wrote journalist Sharyl Attkisson.

“Twitter’s remaining fact-checker has attached a note explaining that this is a fake headline,” wrote another user.