Getting fired stings. Watching your name keep appearing on articles you never wrote? That’s a different kind of violation. Ben Touati, a freelance writer formerly with ClickOut Media‘s German operation, told Press Gazette that five AI-generated articles were published under his byline after his termination. He called the experience “a slap in the face.” The pieces, he said, looked like AI-generated “slop.” This isn’t just one freelancer’s nightmare — it’s a case study in how some publishers treat bylines like company property, even after the humans behind them walk out the door.
Your Name, Their Content
A fired writer’s identity kept working shifts he never clocked in for.
Five articles. Zero input from Touati. His name stamped on every one. The content reportedly read like the output of an AI tool with no editorial fingerprints worth mentioning. Think of it like discovering your face on a dating profile you didn’t create — except it’s your professional reputation getting swiped right into the void.
- Five articles appeared under Touati’s byline after his firing from ClickOut Media
- ClickOut’s official response cited “AI-assisted content” with “human checks and edits” but never explained why a terminated writer’s name remained attached
- Touati filed a GDPR complaint; the company later removed his byline, then reassigned the articles to a different writer
- A previous Videogamer article linked to ClickOut was attributed to a fake AI journalist with an AI-generated profile photo
- The company has faced separate criticism for aggressive “parasite SEO” tactics — a practice where publishers exploit high-authority domains to rank low-quality content — across its portfolio
ClickOut Media states it uses “AI-assisted content where appropriate in tandem with human checks and edits,” according to its statement via Press Gazette. The company added that it continues improving its AI agents and editorial processes.
What that statement didn’t address: why a fired employee’s name stayed bolted to new content he never touched. “Human checks and edits” sounds reassuring until the human whose name appears on the work has already been shown the exit.
The Byline Is Supposed to Mean Something
When attribution becomes fiction, readers lose their only tool for trust.
A byline is journalism’s receipt. It tells you who stands behind the words. When publishers sever that connection — firing the person but keeping the name — accountability evaporates without a trace. Touati’s GDPR complaint may represent the sharpest tool freelancers currently have against this kind of misuse. European data protection law wasn’t designed for byline disputes, but personal identity is personal data.
The next time you read an article online, consider this: the person whose name sits at the top might not have written it, approved it, or even known it existed. For freelancers everywhere, that should feel less like a cautionary tale and more like an alarm.
