3 days ago
'Fake' Astronomer CEO statement circulates after viral Coldplay concert video
"I want to acknowledge the moment that's been circulating online, and the disappointment it's caused," says the purported message. "What was supposed to be a night of music and joy turned into a deeply personal mistake playing out on a very public stage."
The multi-paragraph message attributed to "CEO Andy Byron," which includes apologies to his wife, family and Astronomer team, continues: "I also want to express how troubling it is that what should have been a private moment became public without my consent."
It concludes with a quote from the Coldplay hit song "Fix You."
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Screenshot from X taken July 18, 2025
The supposed statement rocketed across social media platforms such as X and Instagram starting July 17, 2025, spreading in multiple languages and shared by prominent figures including podcast host Keith Olbermann.
The Mirror, a British tabloid newspaper, shared it in a since-corrected article.
The claims follow an awkward and viral moment in which a man and woman were initially shown snuggling and smiling on the jumbotron at a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts. The man quickly ducked out of the frame while the woman turned to cover her face as Coldplay frontman Chris Martin quipped, "Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy."
Internet users and media outlets identified the pair in the video -- which racked up more than 58 million views on TikTok -- as Byron and Kristin Cabot, the technology company's (archived here).
But the statement attributed to Byron online is a fabrication, Mark Wheeler, Astronomer's senior vice president of marketing, told AFP.
"It did originate from a troll account and is indeed fake," Wheeler said in a July 18 email.
Ry Walker, Astronomer's former CEO, also posted on X that the message is "super fake" (archived here).
The purported statement also includes a line which ends, " A search leads to a website selling its domain below the same "Fix You" lyric and text saying: "Coldplay rocks" (archived here).
AFP found no record of Byron releasing any such statement. His LinkedIn account no longer exists.
Dubious origins
The "troll account" Wheeler referenced was "@PeterEnisCBS," an X profile that posted the image July 17 and has since been suspended from the platform for violating its policies.
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Screenshot from X taken July 17, 2025
The account purported to belong to a CBS News reporter named "Peter Enis," but a search of the outlet's website turned up no articles under that byline. Screenshots of the account's bio show that it had at one point been labeled as parody (archived here).
AFP reached out to CBS News to confirm whether it employed anyone by that name, but no response was forthcoming.
The "@PeterEnisCBS" bio also claims past affiliations with the New York Times and NPR, and the account's profile picture shows a man wearing a lapel pin resembling the NBC News logo. The name is not mentioned on any of those three organizations' websites, either.
The veraAI detection tool within the Verification Plugin, also known as InVID-WeVerify, found "moderate evidence" that the profile image could be synthetic, while the AI detection tool Hive Moderation assessed that it is "likely to contain AI generated or deepfake content."
AFP has debunked other misinformation here.
