Fact Check: Photo Does NOT Show Twitter Employees Protesting Elon Musk

Fact Check

  • by: Marlo Lee
Fact Check: Photo Does NOT Show Twitter Employees Protesting Elon Musk Edited Banner

Did Twitter employees protest Elon Musk by marching in gay pride regalia with a banner after he became the owner of Twitter? No, that's not true: There have been no reports of Twitter employees protesting Musk's ownership by marching with this banner. This altered photo of marchers with a Pride flag originally is from a June 2, 2013, Pride parade in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

The claim appeared in an Instagram post on November 6, 2022, with no caption but the timing of the post -- given Musk's takeover of Twitter in late October 2022 and ensuing developments within the company -- and the altered wording on a banner in the photo made the clear implication that the protesters were Twitter employees. The banner in the photo read:

FUCK OFF ELON MUSK

SINCERELY,

TWITTER EMPLOYEES

This is what the Instagram post looked like at the time of writing:

Screen Shot 2022-11-21 at 10.30.30 AM.png

(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Mon Nov 21 14:30:30 2022 UTC)

The post did not cite a source for this picture.

A reverse image search of this image revealed that this is a photograph of Gay Pride Furries marching in a 2013 Pride parade in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The original banner reads, "WILD PRAIRIE FURS & Friends."

Screen Shot 2022-11-21 at 10.51.21 AM.png

(Source: Flickr screenshot taken on Mon Nov 21 14:51:29 2022 UTC)

There have been no reports from reputable media outlets that Twitter employees have protested in the form of a march in response to Musk's ownership of the social media site (example of search here). Twitter employees protested plans to fire 75 percent of the workforce in the form of an "open letter," according to a TIME article. The Washington Post wrote that as another form of protest hundreds of Twitter employees refused to sign a pledge that would require them to work longer hours.

More Lead Stories fact checks about Elon Musk can be found here, here, here and here.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:

Marlo Lee is a fact checker at Lead Stories. She is a graduate of Howard University with a B.S. in Biology. Her interest in fact checking started in college, when she realized how important it became in American politics. She lives in Maryland.

Read more about or contact

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion