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A fake post depicting a message from Google announcing that the tech giant will be "sunsetting" Gmail has been going viral on social media platforms such as X. This rumor comes in the aftermath of the Gemini AI debacle, where the developers issued an apology after online backlash for the artificial intelligence not being able to generate pictures featuring caucasian subjects.
Several prominent accounts on X have been sharing the alleged screenshot, which is deliberately made to look like an official announcement from Google about shutting down Gmail. Naturally, it has caused many people to panic, considering it is one of the most popular email services in the world.
Readers should note that there has been no official press release or announcement about sunsetting the service anytime soon, and there is no need to migrate to other platforms for this issue. It was also recently announced that the email service would get a revamp of their sign-up pages, which would not likely happen if the service is going to be shut down.
Netizens troll Google in the aftermath of the Gemini AI controversy by spreading fake messages about Gmail shutting down
The Gemini AI controversy has naturally been the talk of the tech circles over the last week since reports started rolling out, suggesting ingrained biases prevented it from generating images that consist of caucasian people. Certain social media users took the opportunity to ride the scandal wave and devise a new way to troll Google.
Users like @ChrisJBakke took to their official X accounts and made fun of the scandal by claiming that Gmail was going to be taken down by "mistake" because a miscommunication had led to the whole team getting fired. In the spirit of the joke, Chris, who is associated with X, erroneously claimed he was an SVP for Google. The post has over half a million views at the time of writing.
It is easy to see why many people would be fooled into thinking that Gmail is being shut down, as the screenshot is a carefully crafted imitation of other announcements that Google usually makes. The fake notice also uses the technical term "sunset," which tech companies frequently use to indicate the termination of service.
Here are some of the various posts from users that started garnering a lot of attention on the social media platform.
Reportedly, Gmail has over 1.8 billion global users and occupies a significant portion of the total email user base. It seems unlikely that Google would even consider shutting it down without suffering a major setback.
