Over the weekend, did you see the much-shared story on Reddit by a supposed whistleblower?

Jeri Dansky

It started like this: "I’m a developer for a major food delivery app. The 'Priority Fee' and 'Driver Benefit Fee' go 100% to the company. The driver sees $0 of it. I’m posting this from a library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA. I don’t care anymore."

Well, it was a fake.
https://www.platformer.news/fake-uber-eats-whisleblower-hoax-debunked/

#journalism #AI

Mother Bones

@jeridansky Omg ‍️

Jeri Dansky

@_L1vY_ Yeah. That story was all over the place.

Geoff Wozniak

@jeridansky The sad thing is it's probably (mostly) true, but this is not the evidence.

Jeri Dansky

@GeoffWozniak Yeah, it was so believable for a reason.

Ewen Bell 📸

@jeridansky

I remember reading an account of that story recently and something about it didn't seem right. I didn't share it at the time, even though I couldn't put my finger on what was off.

I'm sad that I have to be so sceptical about everything I read now.

Enia

@jeridansky ugh. thank you for sharing Jeri.

Jeri Dansky

@ewen I didn't pick up on the off-ness, but I've become more cautious of sharing reports without sourcing I feel is reasonably reliable. And sometimes waiting for further reporting after the first splash.

Also, this was getting so much play that I didn't see any reason for me to share it, too. And that sure worked to my advantage this time.

Yeah, we all need lots of skepticism nowadays. Between AI garbage and an administration that lies constantly, there's lots to make us skeptical, sadly.

Kraftwerk-Das Model Collapse

@jeridansky @GeoffWozniak it gets worse, the debunking is also trash, the author asks Gemini "did you make it up?" and trusts its output

Jeri Dansky

This post is deleted!

Ratsnake Games 🔞

@jeridansky The thing is: anybody with a decent image manipulation program and access to a color printer at a copyshop could fake a badge like that without using any AI at all, it would just be a tiny amount more effort

fake ragebait posts like this are not new at all, neither is people falling for them

Joe

@dngrs @jeridansky @GeoffWozniak Go back and read the debunking in detail. The reporter has much more evidence than that.

Jeri Dansky

@not2b I assumed @dngrs was just complaining about the part of Casey's post where he trusted Gemini — not saying the entire debunking was wrong.

Jeri Dansky

@ratsnakegames But the original ragebait story on Reddit didn't include the fake badge. The company was never identified. People fell for it, as they fell for hoaxes in the past, because it sounded believable. Says something about how we regard some of those meal-delivery companies.

Casey's story did include the fake badge, but he also had much more. And he says: "For most of my career up until this point, the document shared with me by the whistleblower would have seemed highly credible in large part because it would have taken so long to put together. Who would take the time to put together a detailed, 18-page technical document about market dynamics just to troll a reporter? Who would go to the trouble of creating a fake badge?

"Today, though, the report can be generated within minutes, and the badge within seconds."

Michael Vilain

@jeridansky Hmmm. This reminds me of "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean there isn't someone out to get me."

Only now in 2026, it's "Just because it's fake doesn't mean it's not true."

binchicken

@jeridansky i reckon there’s another more interesting story here; people were so ready to believe this story because the public perception of platform providers that facilitate gig work is that they are dishonest and exploitative as a matter of course.

binchicken

@jeridansky which was why it was very frustrating to watch casey newton turn it into an adverisment for claude opus

Jeri Dansky

@thegarbagebird Agreed. People believed because it fit their perceptions of companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

Jeri Dansky

@thegarbagebird You lost me here. The story about Claude Opus came way down the page, after the annoying ad for Copilot Money. I never even saw it because I closed the page after reading the one story I cared about.

I'm no fan of Casey Newton, and he's too much of a fan of AI for my I-hate-GenAI-and-AI-being-forced-into-everything tastes, but I do appreciate that he put this story up with no paywall.