The source of the Shadows protection rumor was called unreliable

Later the same evening, 21 June, the report of a pause in bypass work on Shadows was picked apart for its source, not for the contents of a patch.

The account behind the news presented itself as someone who heard things from a tester, not from the person doing the bypass. Earlier forecasts from that account had not matched what happened afterward. Finished builds are sometimes handed over for a check, but that does not include a tour of the process. A retelling like this does not show that the bypass author personally declared a dead end.

A separate stance had already been stated: no middlemen, no advance announcements, and no third parties speaking in someone else's name. As of 21 June there was still no public confirmation that work on Shadows had stopped. The claim that a tougher Denuvo build forced anyone to walk away stayed a rumor from a disputed source.