Did billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman post on Bluesky that he suggests acquiring that platform to shut it down to "prevent further fracturing of the town square"? No, that's not true: The viral image showed a fake post from a suspended account. Ackman's representative confirmed to Lead Stories that the billionaire didn't write the post attributed to him and that Ackman doesn't have a Bluesky account.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on November 20, 2024. It opened:
why not just let people enjoy a different website?
An image of what looked like a Bill Ackman post on BlueSky continued:
Something to consider:Bluesky's value is estimated at $500M-$1B. Acquiring and shutting it downcould prevent further fracturing of thetown square. This cost may be justifiedto preserve market dominance andavoid fragmentation, which, whiledraconian, ultimately keeps peopletogether.
A search for the account's name from the shared image led to a suspended account (archived here) on Bluesky:
When asked whether Ackman (archived here) wrote what was attributed to him, Francis McGill, a spokesperson for Ackman's firm Pershing Square Capital
No. This is a fake.
Answering a follow-up question via email the same day, McGill added that Ackman doesn't have an account on Bluesky.
A search for the exact wording from the supposed post seen here (archived here) led to a November 4, 2024, entry on a sports forum (archived here) that cited the fake post more than two weeks before it was allegedly posted.
A search across Google News for the keywords seen here (archived here) across 2024 articles didn't show any reporting confirming the claim.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning technology can be found here.
