Is Google shutting down Gmail? Viral hoax causes panic

February 24, 2024 inspirechat.net Entrepreneurship 0 Comments


No, Google Gmail isn't dying, but if you're one of the users fooled by fake news, you're not alone.

A fake news spread on social media on Thursday after it was posted on X (formerly Twitter) and quickly went viral.

“After years of connecting millions of people around the world, enabling seamless communication and fostering countless connections, Gmail's journey is coming to an end,” fake document reads, accompanied by the Google logo and standard Google document formatting. “The decision to retire Gmail was made with careful consideration of the evolving digital landscape and our commitment to providing innovative, high-quality solutions that meet the needs of our users.”

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The post stated that Gmail is ending on August 1, 2024, and that from that date, emails will no longer be able to be sent, received or stored on the Gmail platform.

“After this date, Gmail accounts will become inaccessible,” the post said.

Naturally, X users began to panic. In the US, Gmail has a market share of 53%. according to Forbesand more than 1.8 billion active users send and receive about 333 billion emails every day.

The original fake post is believed to have come from Chris Bakke, a product manager for X, whose company Laskie was acquired by then-Twitter in 2021.

In a post on the platform, Bakke satirically joked that he was SVP of Product at Google and that CEO Sundar Pichai had asked him to fire “the entire Google Gemini team” but that he had misunderstood it as “i the entire Google Gmail team,” and thus created a fake document as part of his prank.

“Look that fast without your glasses when you're 7 margaritas deep in the fire pit on a Wednesday and you'll make the same mistake. I mean, you know how confusing it is,” he joked on the platform. “Anyway, I'm making the decision. Gmail is gone.”

Bakke's original post has since garnered over 2.2 million views.

Trolling came just a few hours later Google announced it was halting the release of its Gemini AI tool after radical inaccuracies were found when using text-to-image software to render pictures of certain historical figures.

A community note has been placed by X on Bakke's post informing users that the document is, in fact, a fake.

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“This is a satirical post which is spreading rapidly and is confusing many people who believe it to be true,” the community note reads. “It's not. Google hasn't announced any changes to Gmail.”

Google also cleared the air in a post on the company's official account, noting that Gmail isn't going anywhere.





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