Social media users have recently been using misleading headlines for celebrity gossip stories to encourage voter registration ahead of the November 6 midterm elections in the United States.

Elle Magazine has been receiving loads of negative comments after tweeting “Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are splitting up” with a link redirecting readers to a page encouraging them to vote for women in the forthcoming midterm elections.

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

Twitter users couldn’t hide their frustration with the publication’s misleading headline, dismissing the media outlet for “fake news” and using click bait:

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) 18 октября 2018 г.

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) 18 октября 2018 г.

This is what fake news looks like. It’s deceitful, ugly and just for the clicks. Big shame. — michael litman (@mlitman) 18 октября 2018 г.

Aren’t there better ways to encourage people to vote instead of lying about a marriage as clickbait? Cheap and shameless. — Lisa Boothe (@LisaMarieBoothe) 19 октября 2018 г.

Journalists and reporters from other outlets joined ordinary users in their outrage, blasting Elle for “spreading misinformation”…

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) 18 октября 2018 г.

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) 18 октября 2018 г.

…with a HuffPost editor suggesting that the “super insulting” link implied that Elle readers didn’t care about the vote unless they’re duped into it with celebrity gossip:

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) 18 октября 2018 г.

Another user replied to the original tweet by saying that Elle’s attempts to push voter registration had backfired:

I was gonna vote but now I don’t wanna — KT NELSON (@KrangTNelson) 18 октября 2018 г.

Days before Elle’s tweet some users were using the same trick to lure netizens into registering and voting – and it was not only about the Kimye split, but also a One Direction reunion and the reason why pop star Ariana Grande and comedian Pete Davidson had broken up.

Welp…it’s official…Kim Kardashian finally decided to divorce Kanye West… https://t.co/C2p25mxWJO — Ashlee Marie Preston (@AshleeMPreston) 12 октября 2018 г.

Wow I can’t believe this is why Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson split up https://t.co/WQrbEBV6uD pic.twitter.com/Dc8b9azhua — Tim (@cigelske) 14 октября 2018 г.

The midterm elections to the US Congress are set to be held on November 6, when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be up for grabs.