Tesla

Did Elon Musk publicly announce plans to "officially" buy McDonald's in November 2024? No, that's not true: As of this publication, there is no record of Musk having formally announced plans to buy the food company, and McDonald's has not reported such a purchase. Furthermore, an online AI detector tool found that images published in the post that depicted Musk…

Did tech billionaire Elon Musk unveil a "UFO fighter jet" named Ethereon in mid-November 2024? No, that's not true: Neither Musk, nor his company SpaceX, nor credible news organizations said anything about the development of such a spacecraft. The photos of Musk at the launch pad in the posts spreading the rumor were AI-manufactured. The claim appeared in a post…

Is Elon Musk developing robots that can carry a fertilized fetus to term for nine months, as posts on social media claim? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that such a robot is in development as of this writing. Musk did not talk about this at his October 2024 event, "We, Robot." A version of the claim appeared…

Did the United Kingdom and France issue a "Secret International Arrest Warrant" for Elon Musk? No, that's not true: No news organizations reported anything about the supposedly existing "secret" arrest warrant for Musk approved within jurisdictions of the U.K. or France. The International Criminal Court that issues international arrest warrants denied there is one for the owner of the X…

Did Elon Musk and Donald Trump team up to conduct a cryptocurrency scam that would violate election laws, as claimed in a post on X? No, that's not true: Footage from the 2024 Tesla shareholder's meeting, streamed live, was altered with a fake AI-generated voice and facial synchronizing animation. Musk's original presentation had no mention of "crypto", the altered video…

Did Tesla CEO Elon Musk announce on social media that he would "stop all donations" towards the Olympic Games because it's "a woke event now"? No, that's not true: There are no posts on Musk's social media making or confirming such an announcement. The original article reporting that was written using artificial intelligence according to an online tool that detects…

Did Tesla CEO Elon Musk invest $1 billion into actors Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg's "new un-woke production studio"? No, that's not true: We could not find any evidence to corroborate this claim. Lead Stories debunked a similar claim about a supposed Gibson-Walberg "non-woke film production studio" earlier in 2024. The original claim about the purported studio came from a…

Did entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk say, "I'd rather drink sewer water than see Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl," as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: This claim originally appeared in an article on a satirical website known for publishing fabricated content. There is otherwise no publicly available or credible evidence to support this claim.…

Did President Joe Biden award Rep. Nancy Pelosi a medal for being the "Greatest Trader In Congress"? No, that's not true: This video clip has been edited to display a fake NBC News chyron and to add a fake audio track. This video shows in reality the May 3, 2024, Presidential Medal of Freedom awards. Pelosi was among 19 recipients…

Is Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in March 2024, in the Netflix movie "Leave the World Behind"? No, that's not true: Publicly available footage from the movie shows that the film contains no images or footage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed after being struck by a cargo ship. The social media post that makes this…