Is Elon Musk buying Facebook? No, that's not true: The article saying so has a clear disclaimer at the end that reads, "Recall that this is satire and not actual news."
The claim originated in an article (archived here) published by Topad.News24.Info website on February 25, 2023, under the title "Breaking: Elon Musk confirms he's buying Facebook." It opened:
We will rename it to 'Marsbook'
Elon Musk has announced that he is purchasing Facebook for a staggering $1 trillion dollars, a move that has the IT industry buzzing.
This is how the article appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Topad.News24.Info website screenshot taken Wed Mar 1 18:19:36 UTC 2023)
The article is a parody, as it makes abundantly clear.
The final line of the story about Musk buying Facebook to "transform it into a platform for colonizing the red planet," says in plain language that the story is a joke:
(Source: Topad.News24.Info website screenshot taken Wed Mar 1 19:36:22 UTC 2023)
However, some websites appeared to publish the claims as if it were real news, copying the text verbatim but leaving out the disclaimer that the site was satire, such as here.
Musk, who also owns Space X, did complete his deal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022.
