Chord Electronics fell victim to an ‘April Fool’s Day’ ‘joke’ on Wednesday as a hi-fi reviewer published a fake press release on his review website stating that the manufacturer had gone into administration due to the coronavirus.
The article has now been removed and replaced with an apology.
He stated in an update published in the same article that it was meant as an April Fools’ prank, but Chord Electronics did not see it in the same light, issuing a statement on Twitter to its customers reassuring them that they were very much still in business.
In the statement, the company said: “Chord Electronics cannot speak to the motivation behind the post but is deeply saddened that anyone would attempt to make light of what is a global tragedy at a time when so many are experiencing personal loss.
“The company would like to assure press and public alike that the article that was posted was false and that, subject of course to keeping our staff healthy, it is very much business as usual.”
On reflection of the situation, the author has now taken down the article and issued an apology, which read: “The joke was meant to be a promotional post for them, to keep HiFi alive in our consciousness during the COVID-19 outbreak and it used so many fun facts that clearly it was a joke, that I never in my wildest dreams imagined one person would take it seriously.”
He continued: “The considerations that people often don’t read posts online, they see the headline and react. You see this a lot with Facebook comments enquiring if this is a prank, so I realise the headline has to have an element of responsibility.”
Chord Electronics took to Twitter to let its customers and dealers know that the company had “been the victim of some alarmist fake news” and wanted to reassure that it is still open for business.