Fabricated Elon Musk post threatens to suspend Trump's critics from X | Fact check
The claim: Image shows Elon Musk post threatening to suspend X users who protest Trump administration
A Feb. 3 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be a screenshot of an X post from billionaire Elon Musk that threatens the opponents of President Donald Trump.“Anyone protesting the Trump Administration will be suspended from X,” text of the purported post reads. “All anti-Trump drama can go to a liberal echo chamber like Threads, Reddit, BlueSky, Instagram, and Facebook.”A version of the post on Facebook was shared more than 7,000 times in two days. Similar versions circulated on Instagram.
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Our rating: Manipulated media
The image is a fabrication. There is no record of Musk sharing the post attributed to him.
No record of post on Musk's profile
Musk’s X account contains no record of the post. Nor is there any evidence on archived versions of his account that he shared and later deleted the post. If the post containing those threats against Trump's critics were real, it certainly would have been widely covered by legitimate media outlets. Yet no such news reports exist.
An authentic post also would have been captured and shared by Musk’s 216 million followers at varying times and with different counts of likes or reposts. Yet many versions of the image that circulated fail to include a timestamp or virality statistics. They are, however, cropped the same way, with the bottom parts of the symbols for bookmarking or sending a message cut off – an indication the image is a fabrication that traces to a single source.
Fact check: Elon Musk didn't threaten to suspend X users who mock him. Post is fabricated
Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has assumed a central role during the first three weeks of Trump’s second presidential term, becoming a "special government employee" and taking over the federal government's payment system as part of a push to downsize and restructure bureaucracy. The claim was shared as objections have been aired by watchdog groups and Democrats. They have characterized the move as a massive privacy and security breach and have pledged to fight back.
Paste BN previously debunked fabricated X posts attributed to Musk, including one that defended insurance companies after the shooting death of a UnitedHealthcare CEO and another that said MAGA will succeed where “Nazi Germany failed."
Paste BN reached out to Musk through the press office at X and to several social media users who shared the image but did not immediately receive any responses.
Snopes and Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources
- Elon Musk, accessed Feb. 5, X profile
- Elon Musk (archive), accessed Feb. 5, X profile
- Elon Musk, July 8, 2023, X post
- Elon Musk, Sept. 30, 2024, X post
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