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Dear Volkswagen: You lied to me. You lied to AP, CNBC, Reuters and various trade pubs. This was not a joke. It was deception. In case you hadn’t noticed, we have a misinformation problem in this country. Now you’re part of it. Why should anyone trust you again?

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Lora Kolodny

@lorakolodny

· Mar 30, 2021

Volkswagen's name change of U.S. 'Voltswagen' operations was April Fool's marketing prank, source says cnb.cx/39qcfRa by @MikeWayland @CNBC

9:21 PM · Mar 30, 2021Twitter for iPhone

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I asked my VW source directly: Yes, I see the announcement, but this is a joke, right? No, it’s not a joke, he said. Now they admit it was.

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Nathan Bomey

@NathanBomey

Mar 30, 2021

I am astonished that a company that — just a few years ago, mind you — paid $30 billion in penalties and pled guilty to criminal charges for **deceiving its customers and regulators to pollute the earth** now thinks it’s funny to lie to reporters.

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Nathan Bomey

@NathanBomey

Mar 31, 2021

To everyone out there celebrating the fact that VW lied to reporters, including me: We have common ground: Like you, I desperately want to restore trust in journalism. That's why it's so critical that we must be able to trust our sources. Without it, misinformation flourishes.

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Raises definite ethical issues here. Manipulating the press in order to further your own marketing campaign. Yikes

eightyhey

@eightyhey

Mar 30, 2021

oh no generating press buzz! how manipulative and evil!! i can’t believe you guys are adults/professionals. grow a thicker skin jfc

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and

Dude we all knew it was a joke

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Weird that a company that was pulling an April Fool's joke would lie. It's not like that's exactly what a prank is. #Moron

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Is it a joke if nobody laughs? How ‘bout if they didn’t even know enough to release it April1? Looks more like incompetence to me.

Clear

@YaBoiClear

Mar 30, 2021

i laughed. my whole family laughed and my friends did. at Volkswagen and at you reporters who are so quick to act because of your search for relevancy. Germans like to poke fun at the world and that's exactly what they did and you took the bait

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