ChatGPT Is Telling Locked-Out Users to Email Reporters, 404 Media Says

A banned Instagram user asked the chatbot how to reach Meta, and it suggested a journalist instead and wrote the email itself.

A man in Russia lost 13 years of photos when Instagram banned him. He lost his appeal, then asked ChatGPT how to reach Meta. The chatbot said that probably wasn't possible, then told him to email Jason at 404 Media and wrote the English message for him, 404 Media reported Monday. In the chat log he shared with 404 Media, ChatGPT told him he'd "lost access not merely to a social media profile."

He's not the only one. Jason Koebler, the reporter ChatGPT named, wrote that the big platforms give users almost no way to reach a human. So people with routine problems turn to ChatGPT, which keeps telling them they've found a story and that 404 Media in particular can help. About two weeks before the story ran, the staff started asking senders how they'd found the outlet. Every one pointed to a chatbot, Koebler wrote, and in many cases the bot had written the email.

The pitches come dressed like legal filings. An Italian painter fighting Meta over his suspended work accounts sent nine screenshots as evidence. Asked how he'd found Koebler, he wrote back, "ChatGPT suggested contacting you," according to 404 Media.

The bot doesn't stop at one newsroom, either. Someone whose Verizon service quit working on their iPhone emailed Koebler, three of his colleagues and outlets including the Washington Post, NBC News and the Los Angeles Times, asking for an outside investigation, 404 Media reported.

Writer Molly White said on her blog that the same thing is happening to her, only with tips about crypto troubles. A bot can research and draft the email with little effort from the sender, she wrote, but checking it for made-up claims takes the recipient real time. "They're basically DDOSing journalists," she wrote.

Koebler wrote that some of these tips are of real public concern and 404 Media is glad to get them. White has started skipping tips that come in clearly AI-written emails, though she knows a real one could be in the pile.

Source: 404media.co, retrieved October 28, 2026. Other sources: 404media.co (2), mollywhite.net.