Did Disney and Google buy the rights to the first King James Version of the Bible? No, that's not true: No sources are cited in the Instagram post where the claim is stated. The claim first appeared in a 2018 article from The Babylon Bee, a well-known satirical website. Lead Stories could not find any supporting evidence that would corroborate the claim.
The claim appeared in a post on Instagram (archived here) on June 28, 2024, with the caption, "Disney is changing history!" The Instagram post contains a clip from an apparent podcast with two men speaking into microphones:
MAN A: Did you see that Disney and ...
MAN B: ... Is adding chemtrails?
MAN A: No. Disney and Google bought the rights to the First King James Bible and ...
MAN B: I did see that.
MAN A: ... They're already changing it.
This is what the Instagram post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Tue Jul 2 14:44:27 2024 UTC)
The two men do not cite any source and quickly move on to another topic. While the post is dated June 28, 2024, it is not clear from the post when this clip was recorded.
Lead Stories did a search using keywords on Google News, visible here, which found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim (archived here).
Searching on Google led to a 2018 article (archived here) from The Babylon Bee titled, "Disney Buys Rights To The Bible, Plans 37 Sequels."
The Babylon Bee is a well-known satire website that pokes fun at topics that are popular among conservative Christians.
The site's About page mentions their satirical nature:
The Babylon Bee is the world's best satire site, totally inerrant in all its truth claims. We write satire about Christian stuff, political stuff, and everyday life.
The About page adds:
If you would like to complain about something on our site, take it up with God.
More Lead Stories articles debunking claims from satirical websites are here.
