Dive Brief:

• The man who claimed he deleted his entire company's work and his clients' data with a single line of code now admits the claim is a hoax.

• In an online forum, hosting provider Marco Marsala sought advice for how to repair his (purported) error. Several major news organizations picked up the story.

• However, in an interview with the Italian publication Repubblica, Marsala said the story was a marketing effort for his company, and that the server software he was using prevented such a massive deletion by default.

Dive Insight:

Ugh. The Next Web gets it right with its headline: 'Man who allegedly deleted his startup with one line of code is a huge troll.' Several mainstream British mainstream publications picked up the story, as did such sites as Engadget, Komando and Yahoo Tech. So did we as we briefed the reporting of some other sites.

But once again, the fact that someone wrote a story on the internet -- even someone who would appear to be a reputable source -- doesn't make the story true.