"The popular AI image generator Midjourney halted free trials on Tuesday, leading many news outlets to blame fake photos of Donald Trump getting arrested and Pope Francis wearing a white coat, two images that recently went viral. But that’s not the reason Midjourney says it’s stopping free trials of the service.

Midjourney CEO David Holz broke the news about the end of free trials on the company’s Discord channel, citing “extraordinary demand and trial abuse,” but that term “abuse” apparently confused a lot of news outlets, which assumed it had something to do with all the fakes that have recently gone viral. Holz, who tried to clarify things on Thursday, told The Verge that it was a “misunderstanding.”

The abuse Holz referenced was people creating multiple accounts in order to get around the free trial limits for the number of images that people could create. Specifically, a large influx of new users from China, combined with a viral video showing users in China how to create multiple accounts, overloaded Midjourney’s ability to handle the traffic. Even paid users weren’t able to create new images earlier this week, according to The Verge. Holz did not immediately respond to a request for comment emailed Friday morning.