Elle Magazine is receiving significant pushback after using a fake story about Kanye West and Kim Kardashian to push voter registration on Twitter.

The women's magazine tweeted "Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are splitting up" with a link. The link, though, directs readers to a page encouraging them to register and vote for women in the upcoming midterm elections.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are splitting up https://t.co/epwKG7aSBg pic.twitter.com/u7qqojWVlR — ELLE Magazine (US) (@ELLEmagazine) October 18, 2018

Similar types of social media posts have become popular in recent weeks, with multiple viral tweets redirecting celebrity gossip stories to voter registration pages.

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Twitter users responded with frustration to Elle Magazine's tweet, with many calling it "fake news" for a news outlet to mislead readers.

"When a random tweeter did this it was clever but now you’re just stealing their tweet and also spreading fake news," journalist Yashar Ali tweeted.

When a random tweeter did this it was clever but now you’re just stealing their tweet and also spreading fake news. https://t.co/RDZg4bQsMc — Yashar Ali (@yashar) October 18, 2018

"This is trash nonsense," tweeted writer and activist Roxane Gay. "Who do you think you are reaching with this? Guess what? One can be civic minded and interested in celebrity gossip. Do better."

Media Matters for America editor-at-large Parker Molloy criticized such tweets, saying "it's just spreading misinformation."

Can people please stop doing that thing where they post a salacious headline that links to a voter registration page? Like... this... is really not cool. It's just spreading misinformation. https://t.co/DJVNw5FC2u — Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) October 18, 2018

it is just not appropriate to play these games with people.



i get it, you want people to vote, and it's hard to cut through the noise. ostensibly, though, you're in the business of informing people. using fake headlines to get attention only exacerbates the web's trust deficit. https://t.co/N4Nlk9Hf8e — Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) October 18, 2018

this is a link to a voter registration page, which implies that elle readers aren't interested in voting unless they're being tricked into it with fake celeb breakup news, which seems...super insulting to elle readers, actually?



</humorlessness> https://t.co/u5o9d6fJhC — Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) October 18, 2018

Some critics pointed out that Elle's readership is mostly women and questioned if the tweet was sexist and implied that women would not be civically engaged without being hooked by celebrity gossip.

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One of the only high-profile figures to offer support for the tweet was CNN's Chris Cillizza.

"This is brilliant," he wrote.

This is brilliant https://t.co/piqIa5j1dZ — Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) October 18, 2018

Updated at 3:01 p.m.