Nobody should be saying that masks do not work. When worn by a sick person, they very effectively prevent droplets from leaving the mouth. They also help not breathing in contamination, as airborne viruses are usually contained in droplets. But there are other ways to get infected, so they don't help as much as people think they do.
There was definitely a lot of press early on basically saying masks (and latex gloves) don't work.
Generally they were clickbaity articles with headlines stating exactly that, but content stating the more reasonable idea that masks/gloves don't work (and may in fact cause more problems than they solve) if you don't use them correctly.
eg. someone buys a mask, keeps using the same mask day after day while handling the mask in way that may make the inside of it a contaminated surface, etc.
