A journalist laid off by AI discovers the company is still publishing articles under their own name

Freelance writer Ben Touati was laid off by ClickOut Media this March. The reason given by his manager was that his colleagues had used AI to boost output, so there wasn’t that much work. Two months later, he saw five casino guide articles he hadn’t written on his own author page—every one of them signed with his name. He filed a complaint under the EU GDPR after claiming his personal data had been misused, and the company removed the byline. But in July, 28 more showed up.
(Backgrounder: Lawyer Lin Shanglun’s special article》AI has become the universal excuse for layoffs! Tech companies collectively pass the blame)
(Background: The New York Times board chair’s speech: How should media survive in the AI era? I urge the industry to stand up and resist)

Table of contents

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• Layoff reason was AI
• Company used its own name illegally
• A machine with 200 domains that can’t remember who wrote what

Key takeaways

• Ben Touati was laid off in March, and on May 26 he found five AI casino posts bearing his byline
• After filing a GDPR complaint on June 2, the byline was removed; then another 28 appeared in July
• Parent company Finixio had 2024 revenue of about £40 million and holds 200+ domains

On May 26 this year, Ben Touati opened Esports Insider’s website and saw five articles on his author page. The titles were all casino guides, and the body text was loose and empty. He described the pieces as “just lazy—clearly slop (low-quality content churned out by AI), and clearly there isn’t a real human behind it.”

But the author byline on every article was his—Ben Touati.

And the company had already fired him more than two months earlier.

According to Press Gazette, the publication times of all five pieces fell between 5:39 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., one per day, posted consecutively through May 29. The articles still contained some odd markers, which Ben Touati said were the work of AI. He told Press Gazette, “This is a direct slap in the face.”

Layoff reason was AI

Ben Touati is based in Stockholm and is a freelance writer contributing to ClickOut Media. He has written for Techopedia, Esports Insider, and The Escapist, with topics spanning AI, cryptocurrency, technology, games, esports, and comics. When he was hired, his manager called him “Nerd in Chief,” though it wasn’t an official title.

He said those days he went all in. “I even wrote an article about comics—that was almost a lifelong dream. I got event press credentials, the kind of thing.”

On March 9, the company revoked his system access. From March 23, the employment relationship ended. The manager’s reasons had two layers: on the surface, Esports Insider had been removed from Google’s index, so it couldn’t generate enough revenue. The underlying reason, according to the manager, was that he had let go of several freelance writers because there wasn’t enough work, and everyone had already used AI to “boost output.”

Two months later, that “boosted output” was published with his name on five articles.

Company used its own name illegally

On June 2, Ben Touati filed a complaint against ClickOut Media under the EU GDPR, arguing that his personal data had been misused. Under GDPR, a name is personal data; when data is incorrect, the person can request correction or deletion. After the complaint, the company removed the bylines on those five articles and changed them to the name of another writer.

What he wanted back wasn’t his fees—it was his name.

ClickOut Media’s legal entity registered in the UK is Finixio. Section 84 of the UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is very explicit: anyone has the right not to be incorrectly identified as the author of a work; anyone who knows, or has reason to believe, that the attribution is untrue and still distributes the work to the public infringes that right, which continues to exist for 20 years after the person’s death. Article 6 bis of the Berne Convention protects the right to “claim oneself as the author,” while Section 84 protects the opposite side: not having something you didn’t write forcibly attached to you.

ClickOut Media’s public response, from start to finish, consisted of only two sentences.

We use AI-assisted content where appropriate, alongside manual checks and editing. We continue to improve the accuracy of our AI agents, and we also improve our manual editorial processes.

This statement doesn’t explain why a company would use a former employee’s name to credit AI-generated articles.

Even after the bylines were removed, the story wasn’t over. On July 15, Press Gazette updated its report: after the German version of Esports Insider came back online, another 28 casino-related articles appeared on the site. The publication dates ranged from May 15 to July 14, and the byline was still Ben Touati. He said, “Each one was after March 9, the day ClickOut revoked my access, and as of March 23 I wasn’t an employee at all.” This sequel has been reported by Press Gazette so far alone.

• March 9: ClickOut Media revoked Ben Touati’s system access
• March 23: Employment ended
• May 26: He found five articles he hadn’t written on his own author page
• June 2: After filing a GDPR complaint, the byline was removed
• July 15: Press Gazette updated the report; another 28 articles appeared on the German site

Machines with 200 domains—can’t remember who wrote what

ClickOut Media claims to be a marketing company specializing in web3, finance, and technology. Press Gazette points out that its parent company, Finixio, had about £40 million in 2024 revenue and management based in Malta, with more than 200 domains. Its model is to buy tech and gaming media that already have readers and Google authority, replace the journalists with AI, and then insert casino recommendation links. Google has a name for this kind of operation—site reputation abuse—while the industry simply calls it parasitic SEO.

The acquisition list includes The Escapist, Videogamer, Esports Insider, Techopedia, Sportscasting, She Kicks, and GamesHub. In a February investigation, Press Gazette also singled out two “journalists,” Brian Merrygold and Callum Mercer. Both of their profile photos, as detected by IdentifAI, were AI-generated; the articles, as detected by Pangram, were also AI-generated. Brian Merrygold’s bio says he is a “senior iGaming and sports betting analyst,” and he’s also “a lifelong player.” Later, Metacritic removed his review of “Resident Evil: Revenge of the Soul.” Founder Marc Doyle was blunt: “Metacritic’s policy is to never include AI-generated reviewer reviews.”

For some AI journalists, the file names of their avatars still include the words “ChatGPT.”

The 2023 approach was to invent a non-existent person out of thin air; the 2026 approach is to take a real person and replace them with AI.

On July 25, TechCrunch updated a list tracking large technology companies in 2026 that publicly cited AI as the reason for layoffs. Monday.com, in July, announced it would lay off about 630 people—about 20% of its workforce—becoming the 21st company on the list. TechCrunch, citing Financial Times statistics, said that in the U.S. tech industry alone this year, nearly 140k positions have already been cut.

After many were laid off, their names disappeared from company websites—his didn’t.

FAQ

What kind of company is ClickOut Media?

In the UK, its registered entity is Finixio. In 2024, it had about £40 million in revenue and holds 200+ domains. The approach is to buy tech and gaming media with Google authority, replace journalists with AI, and then insert casino links—what the industry calls parasitic SEO.

Why can GDPR be used to deal with a byline being used without authorization?

GDPR treats a name as personal data. When the data is incorrect, the person concerned can request correction or deletion. Ben Touati filed a complaint on June 2, claiming his personal data was misused, and ClickOut Media subsequently changed the bylines on those five articles. None of the reports specified the provisions he relied on.