Publishers remove articles after AI-concerns emerge over four tech writers’ identities

Deloitte’s press office has no record of anyone named Sadie Ann Williamson ever working there. Auckland’s Ponsonby Rugby Club, where her LinkedIn profile says she coached, also told Press Gazette it could not verify her. Her consultancy lists an address on Quay Street in Auckland, but messages sent to the company have gone unanswered.

Williamson is one of four technology and finance contributors whose identities Press Gazette has been unable to verify, despite years of bylines across outlets including Forbes, Entrepreneur, VentureBeat, CIO, IBTimes, Information Age and The Next Web.

Press Gazette contacted publications that had run their work and asked them to verify the writers. None was able to do so, according to the investigation. After the inquiries, Hacker Noon and Information Age removed articles by the contributors.

The other writers are Ralph Tkatchuk, Victor G Snyder and Daan Pepijn. Press Gazette found sparse online footprints and little direct contact information for the four. Snyder’s LinkedIn profile has since disappeared. His profile said he worked for Boss Makers, while the company said it had been operating for 10 years. Its website is now offline and available only through the Wayback Machine. Its X account has nine followers.

The writers also repeatedly covered cryptocurrency and blockchain companies. Press Gazette found that two of them appeared in case studies published by Israel-based PR agency Inbound Junction, where their articles were cited as earned media for clients including Akeyless and Memcyco. Inbound Junction said its Akeyless campaign generated 117 articles and three million impressions.

Several of the writers also published pieces about Gladius, a crypto startup that raised $12.7 million through an initial coin offering. Press Gazette reported separately that the company collapsed in 2017. A CIO article by Tkatchuk about Gladius has since been removed, though an archived version remains online.

Press Gazette also raised questions about Tkatchuk’s profile picture, which it said closely resembles that of an American IT expert who runs a home computer repair business. The publication did not name the man and said it was unclear whether he had agreed to the use of his image.

The investigation also examined links to MarketAcross and Inbound Junction. MarketAcross managing partner Itai Elizur told Press Gazette that the companies do not employ the writers, that employees do not operate any of the profiles and that the firm does not hold personal contact details for them. He said any activity associated with the writers “appears to be years ago.”

Press Gazette also identified Nadav Dakner as having ties to both MarketAcross and Inbound Junction. Elizur pointed to ongoing civil proceedings the company has brought against two former Inbound Junction employees, alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud. He asked that those proceedings be considered when assessing information provided by the former employees.

For publishers, the investigation raises a relatively basic question. Can they verify the person behind a contributor byline?

The removals by Hacker Noon and Information Age show that some publishers are willing to revisit older contributor content once questions about a writer’s identity are raised. But the investigation does not establish what checks those publishers carried out when the articles were originally accepted.