AAP FACTCHECK – A fake 2015 article that argues diversity is a way of getting rid of white people has been resurrected on social media.
The article was written under a false byline by a self-confessed troll who was recently released from prison, and both the author and the producer who published it acknowledge it is fake.
Screenshots of the essay are being shared widely on Facebook, with captions such as: “This is woke.”
The bogus article was amplified by X owner Elon Musk in a retweet on October 6 to his 202.1 million followers.
The original tweet shared the entire article, adding: “To all those who say this article is fake – It’s not, it’s very real, it’s very disturbing, and it says out loud what woke policies are secretly about.”
In his retweet Musk added the caption: “Racism in any form is abhorrent and those who push it should be shunned.”
He made no comment to indicate the article was fake.
Musk’s post has been viewed more than 15 million times.
Community notes have since been added to Musk’s post pointing out the article was fake, but the post had not been taken down at time of writing.
The article was published on May 26, 2015, under the byline “Emily Goldstein” by the online publishing site Thought Catalog. It has since been taken down.
AAP FactCheck asked Thought Catalog why the article was taken down, but multiple emails went unanswered.
The article’s full title was: “Yes, Diversity Is About Getting Rid Of White People (And That’s A Good Thing).”
The writer argued that “in order for a better world to be created, white people need to be exterminated” and that diversity is “white genocide”.
A Google image search of the portrait photo attached to the article reveals it belongs to a legitimate journalist named Emily Goldstein.
An August 16 article on the ProPublica news site, where Ms Goldstein is a copy editor, clarifies that she is not the author of the essay and has never been employed by or contributed work to Thought Catalog.
The article explains Ms Goldstein has been the target of online threats and harassment since the recent resurgence of the article online.
“Unfortunately, numerous individuals on social media have propagated incorrect information about Goldstein’s involvement and used her photo to imply she was the author,” ProPublica says.
“These claims are completely unfounded and appear to be part of a malicious attempt to discredit her.”
The real author of the article, Joshua Goldberg, has admitted to it in a Medium blog, published in 2019 (and updated several times), and a Substack article, published on October 6, 2024, in which he writes about being “posted on Twitter by none other than Elon Musk”.
He also writes: “At first glance anyone with a functioning brain could tell this article from ‘Goldstein’ is blatantly obvious rage bait.”
In the Medium article, he writes: “If there was ever a major firestorm on the internet, you can rest assured that I played some role in it. For example, remember that ‘Yes, Diversity is About Getting Rid of White People (and That’s a Good Thing)’ article by ‘Emily Goldstein’? That was me (I assumed that the alt-right would be stupid enough to fall for it, and I assumed correctly).”
Goldberg also describes how he was arrested in 2015 on terrorism charges and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. He has since been released.
“What I had not anticipated was that, after my release from prison earlier this year, the article would suddenly explode in popularity again, with far-right influencers across social media sharing it for rage clicks, despite me having previously admitted to being the author of it,” he writes on Substack.
In the Substack article he describes himself as the most prolific internet troll in history “with a dizzying array of fake online identities”.
He says that when he wrote the “Emily Goldstein” article his publisher at the time, Daniel Hayes, didn’t want to publish it, but subsequently did so after the arrest.
Goldberg admitted in an email to AAP FactCheck that he authored the “Emily Goldstein” article.
This was also confirmed separately by Mr Hayes, who described the article as “satire”. He said that he was a producer for Thought Catalog at the time of the article’s publication.
Mr Hayes is the author of an article about Goldberg, “From Troll To Terrorist: Joshua Goldberg And How Ideology Corrupts Online Media”.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
All information, text and images included on the AAP Websites is for personal use only and may not be re-written, copied, re-sold or re-distributed, framed, linked, shared onto social media or otherwise used whether for compensation of any kind or not, unless you have the prior written permission of AAP. For more information, please refer to our standard terms and conditions.
