A newspaper apologizes after the "fake article"... What happened?

 An Irish newspaper has apologized after publishing an opinion piece that turned out to be entirely synthetic, highlighting the potential effects of the technology revolution on journalism. Roadan McCormick, a member of the editorial board of The Irish Times, said the media organization was "sorry" after it published, on Thursday, an article talking about "Ireland's women's obsession with tanning, or fake tanning."

The article was published as being written by a twenty-nine-year-old woman called Andriana Acosta Cortez, who is a health worker, and then it turned out that this character does not exist. The article seemed critical of the Irish women's tendency to tan, through devices and centers that are now available in many countries of the world, amid fears of their health effects.

On Friday, some questioned whether the "alleged writer" really existed or was it just a fake personality, then the content of the article was removed from the site, with an explanation indicating the existence of a "verification process". A response issued by the newspaper’s management stated that the media organization had fallen victim to what was described as “deliberate forgery,” indicating that “what happened will be taken seriously, and there will be no leniency regarding this issue.”

The administration described what happened as breaking the trust between the newspaper and its readers, stressing that "the publication of the article showed a gap in the publishing standards that will be subject to more rigor in the coming period." The newspaper said that it had received the article in good faith and moved forward with publishing it, and believed that it was a young woman who wrote it, then things turned upside down, and it turned out that she was a non-existent person.